Rev. Martin Luther King Jr "I Have a Dream"...........

As we reflect on the 50 years since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial, "Everything has changed, and nothing has changed."

Everything has changed in that on Wednesday an African American president will offer his reflections on King's speech and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Now, there are African American members of Congress, CEOs, doctors, lawyers, police officers and firefighters when there were few, if any, in King's time. The high school graduation rate of African Americans  and Caucasians is significantly closer than it was then, and the percentage of African Americans who voted in 2012 was higher than Caucasian.

But nothing has changed in that, much like 50 years ago, African Americans earn about half as much as Caucasian people, and their unemployment rate is twice as high. Now, as then, many African Americans are worried about their ability to vote after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that key portions of the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act were unconstitutional.

Only 32 percent of African Americans feel that "a lot" of progress toward racial equality has been made since King's speech, according to a Pew Research survey released last week, while 48 percent of Caucasians thought a lot has been made.

More than a quarter of African Americans say little or no progress has occurred.

"We're able to go into the front door now," said Yolanda Lewis, CEO and president of the Black Economic Council in Oakland. "But we're often not able to do business once we get inside."

Only 1 percent of African American-owned firms reported more than $1 million in receipts in 2007, according to census figures, compared with 5 percent for all U.S. firms. While the number of African American-owned firms is increasing rapidly, the vast majority of them report less than $50,000 in receipts and employ fewer than 1 percent of all workers.

As King said half a century ago: "One-hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One-hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land."

Sitting in the front room of their home in the Maxwell Park neighborhood of Oakland this week were four generations of an African American family led by 93-year-old patriarch Erwin Breaux, a former member of the Buffalo Soldiers, an African American military unit that existed before the armed forces were integrated.

They have lived in the home for 45 years and were joined by Alteresa Thomas, who has lived on the same block for 49 years, and other friends and relatives they've known for decades.

And while African Americans now can attend the same schools as Caucasians, "it's not the same education," said Shante Wilson, Mary Washington's 37-year-old niece, who attended schools in California. The schools in black neighborhoods are generally not of the same quality as the ones in white neighborhoods, the group agreed.

A half-century later, King's speech resonates with everyone in the room, in different ways. For Wilson, it's a reminder that President Obama's election shows young African Americans that they can dream to grow up to be president.

For Thomas, it recalls "all the struggling that our forefathers went through. When you see photos of people being hosed down, you wonder, 'Why would anyone do that to another human being?' "