During the civil rights movement, Americans were fighting two wars: a war in Vietnam and a civil war between different races. Morris Dees said last night that today, history is repeating itself.

Americans find themselves fighting two wars, as they did in the 1960s, he said. In Iraq, the United States is trying to "impose democracy" on others; at home, citizens struggle to define "the minority" and "the majority," he added.

Dees, an author and civil rights expert, spoke last night in front of more than 500 people at Eisenhower Auditorium to complete a day that commemorated slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

Dees shared his views on King's life and legacy and America's need to continue his dream.

"I hope he began the last battle of the American Revolution," Dees said.

Dees shared an experience as chief counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights firm founded in 1971, in which he expanded King's legacy. One incident, he said, involved the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) threatening Vietnamese refugees working as fishermen in Houston, Texas, because they believed the men had no right to fish in American water.

Despite the men's fear of losing businesses they had started, he helped the men file a lawsuit against the American fishermen and the KKK. Dees said he used reminders of the struggle of citizens of different colors during King's lifetime and urged them not to drop the suit.

"These new Americans were finding a place at the table ... in large part [because of] Martin Luther King Jr.," Dees said.

Dees discussed today's "inequalities" by asking how some people could go to the moon and explore Mars while many cannot afford prescription drugs.

There are 500 hate groups and 400 Web sites with 50,000 hate crimes that are less publicly known, he added.

Dees predicted by 2050 that today's "minority" will be the majority and senior citizens will become the minority. He said citizens must fill gaps created by racial differences for the nation to move forward.

He said America is a "great experiment in democracy," where the focus should be on fairness and equality.

Dees remembered King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., describing it as a way for King "to tell us he believed in us."

"I still think he would still have the same faith in us," Dees said.

The world, he said, is made up of different sexual orientations, religion, races and disabled citizens -- a world of "us's and thems."

Serdar Serteser (senior-political science) came for his class, Political Science 435W (Foundations of American Political Theory). He said it was important to remember that everyone has social consciousness and their own duties to their government.

"You have to raise your voice," he said. "If everyone does this, it will be a full democratic country."

Afton Vermeer (sophomore-crime, law and justice) came to the event after her professor in Religious Studies 146 (The Life and Thought of Martin Luther King Jr.) suggested the class attend.

"We were supposed to come to write a paper on it. I think I would have come anyway," she said. "I'm excited to hear what he has to say. He has such an integral part in [the civil rights movement]."

Dees focused on King's fondness of the saying, "Don't be satisfied until justice rolls like water."

"I predict that someone is going to write a book of our time," Dees said, "about a generation that refused to quit and that justice rolled down like water."