The Alabama capitol, which sits at the East end of Dexter Avenue. (Flickr, sunsurfr)

At the East end of Dexter Avenue atop Goat Hill, sits the Alabama State Capitol where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the president of the Confederacy and where George Wallace declared “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

At the west end is the Court Square fountain, where Hebe, goddess of youth and cupbearer to the Gods marks the spot where Montgomery was born from the merging of two rival pioneer communities — Alabama Town and New Philadelphia.

Smack in the middle is Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr. first preached of love and peaceful protest, and where the black people of Montgomery, Alabama planned a boycott that launched a revolution.

I grew up going to the church across the street, long after the flames of segregation were first dampened with defiance and eventually smothered out with law.

The Montgomery of my childhood was a vastly different city than it was for my mother or my grandmother.

I’ve never known a time without classmates, teammates and friends of different races. I can’t imagine a time when people could openly abuse others based on their skin color.

I am from a generation of Southerners who grew up in the ashes of segregation. And, it may surprise people who aren’t from the South to know how fertile that ground is.

Among my peers, I see smart, ambitious people of all races working toward goals their parents could hardly imagine.

They are first-generation college graduates. They work in high-tech industries. They travel all over the world, serving in the military and working for global businesses.

They are striving to make wise long-term decisions with their money, their time and their spirits. And, they are raising their children to reject racism and bigotry.

So, while Martin Luther King, Jr.’s great dream remains yet unrealized, I believe we are inching ever closer to it. And, I am proud to have grown up in the birthplace of that dream.