Forty years ago today, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

King’s death on April 4, 1968, marked the final day of a legacy that fueled one of the largest civil rights movements in history.

During a time in America when protest and the public voice were exercised regularly on issues such as peace, race and social innovation, King will be remembered as not just a civil rights leader, but an innovator of progressive thinking and change.

Though his impact on civil rights remains unquestioned, some believe today’s standards for equality don’t hold a candle to King’s ultimate goals.

“I don’t think [King] would say that his mission has been fulfilled,” said Elizabeth Hoffman, executive vice president and provost. “I think he would say that we’ve made a great deal of progress.”

King’s mission is remembered every year on his birthday in January, throughout Black History Month in February and by the myriad elements of city infrastructures that bear his name.

However, some scholars argue that the most commonly referenced moment of King’s life – his “I Have a Dream” speech – does not paint a complete or accurate picture of the man.

“The focus tends to be on black and white children holding hands and singing,” said Mary Sawyer, professor of religious studies. “They keep it on integration – people just changing their minds and deciding to be nice.”

Vincent Harding, author of many essays about King and his life, wrote that Martin Luther King Day reinforces a “watered-down” King that ignores the kinds of changes King was trying to bring about.

“That was the only image that the majority of this nation was probably able to accept,” said Tameka Greene, vice president of the Black Student Alliance and senior in art and design.

Greene said students should not be quick to form an opinion of King before conducting research first.

“Definitely read before you make a decision about who he was as a leader,” she said.

The early part of King’s movement was dedicated to achieving desegregation and enfranchisement for all people. But as King continued to travel the country, he became aware of a bigger problem – poverty.

“If you read books about him and letters by him from the mid-’60s, that was the time he was starting to change his views about integration and equality as a whole,” Greene said. “He was definitely starting to see things in a different light.”

As black Americans were granted more civil rights, some became frustrated because their social freedom was worth little when they had no money.

This frustration led to the Black Power movement, Sawyer said, which was all about economic empowerment.

Though both whites and blacks were skittish toward this new movement, Sawyer said King was “so committed to peace he could not remain silent.”

“This was a different King than America was ready for – radical, prophetic . and every step of the way, true to his religious tradition,” she said.

Sawyer said people also often forget about King’s religious background.

“He was really rooted in black religious tradition,” she said.

While King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is his most well-known, Hoffman said another famous delivery better showed the character of King toward the end of his life.

After listening to and analyzing King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, Hoffman said she felt there were signs in his rhetoric that showed that King spoke as if he knew his life was in jeopardy and as if he knew assassination was a real threat to both his life, but to the movement he established.

“I think he saw . that he was going to be assassinated,” Hoffman said. “Most people who have analyzed that speech really see that as him saying ‘I’ve seen the mountaintop, and God, you can take me now.'”

Hoffman said King’s death was part of a string of events that greatly impacted her generation.

“What I remember was that there was a great sense of hope, followed by a sense of despair,” she said. “Between Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, for my generation there was a great sense of hope -much like younger generations are seeing in Barack Obama today.”

Hoffman’s comparison of King to Obama delved into the effects she feels Obama may have on today’s younger generations. She said the potential Obama possesses to be next agent of change is something that can’t be ignored – on a number of levels.

“I see a lot of similarities in the effects [Obama] has on young people that both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King possessed,” Hoffman said. “If Barack Obama is elected president, he will be a prime assassination target. That aspect of the history has not been erased.”