On Monday the nation will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

In Adams County, the Natchez Branch of the NAACP has a weekend of events planned.

Starting 3 p.m. Sunday, the NAACP will hold an MLK Celebration Dinner at the Natchez Convention Center.

Past NAACP Field Director Windell H. Paris Sr. will be the guest speaker and black candidates who were recently elected to county offices will be guests of honor.

At 3 p.m. Monday the annual MLK Day parade will roll through downtown Natchez.

Lineup begins at 2 p.m. Monday on Broadway Street and registration will be available and fees collected at the line up.

Martin Luther King Jr. fought the good fight to end racial injustice and racial segregation at the head of the nation’s civil rights movement in the turbulent 1960s.

The fight claimed his life. Today, however, in no small part due to his efforts, our society is a little closer to living his dream of a color-blind society that he so eloquently envisioned in his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.

In that spirit, organizers are encouraging everyone, black and white and all ethnicities, to join in the celebrations of King’s life and achievements.

We encourage everyone to celebrate that dream as well by participating in Sunday’s dinner and/or Monday’s parade.

While we are closer to the King’s dream of racial equality, we still have a way to go.

King did not get to make it to the other side of the mountaintop from which he envisioned a more color-blind society, but we are living in it.

If blacks, whites and other races participate in this weekend’s events, it will bring us that much closer to making King’s dream a reality.

King’s dream and his efforts are certainly worth celebrating.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!