Today, Americans will pause to remember how the country changed on this day 50 years ago.

On April 4, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, Tenn., where he had traveled in support of striking black city sanitation workers.

The assassination cut short King’s remarkable legacy, which he had built with about 13 years of activity in the Civil Rights movement. From leading boycotts and marchers to meeting with elected leaders and giving speeches, King always stood by his commitment to nonviolence as he provoked change.

During his short life, King left social change in his wake everywhere he went. It took longer in some places than in others, but the Civil Rights movement eventually led to equal rights in public accommodations and other areas of life for those of all races.

But many would agree that even 50 years later, there is still more to do. Discrimination may be more covert, but it does still exist.

Don’t let the progress made by King and his colleagues, or his death, have been in vain.

The best way to commemorate King’s life and legacy is to do something every day that moves America one step closer to the dream he envisioned. Stand against injustice. Examine your own biases and prejudices and root them out of your lives. Treat all people kindly, and judge them, as King said so eloquently in his most famous speech, by the content of their character.