ATLANTA — We are commemorating the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
However, a new Pew Research Center Survey, released this month, is showing that young adults don't know much about King's iconic speech.
The results show that people 65 and older know the most about it and then the percentage declines with every, subsequent age group and generation.
11Alive talked to some students at North Atlanta High School about this.
Malahk Goldston is a senior who understands the speech's resilience. He moved to the U.S. with his family from Israel.
"I think we're losing it because it's not being talked about enough," Goldston said. "And I think when it's being talked about, it's very brief."
Students in the school's AP African studies class are breaking down what the speech means to them. They participated in a program during school Monday.
"I think about community, I think about equality," said senior Jude Hamilton.
Hamilton said the program reminded him about race issues still going on in 2023.
"How people of color are being discriminated horrifically to this day," Hamilton said.
The AP classroom can only hold so many students. For other 18-year-olds, history is perhaps getting lost on them.
Lydia Dukes is a senior.
"It's kind of saddening to see that my kids or their kids after might not have that same attachment to 'I Have a Dream' and just civil rights, in general," Dukes said.
The results showed knowledge seems to vary by race, with Black people feeling the most confident. Dukes said she was immersed in Black history at an early age.
"My grandmother was impacted by the speech and the Civil Rights Act and just everything after that," Dukes said. "And it's literally one of the reasons why I'm allowed to go to a school like this."
So, the pressure is on the grandchildren to pass down what they know.
Junior Nigel Davis said kids need to be informed early before their beliefs become more difficult to change. He shares what the speech means to him.,
"It's just about building a family with people you're not like. You need to hear other people's views," Davis said.
Senior Grace Fors hopes history like this isn't taken out of the curriculum. She said the last time she learned about King's speech was in middle and elementary school.
"They sugarcoat a lot of history," Fors said.
She said she hopes to promote some of King's ideas, as we've made progress but there's still more work to do.
"We really need to go back into history and remind ourselves what people have been working so hard for for so long," Fors said.