What Obama's candidacy means to the movement.August 28, 2008. Barack Obama is preparing to accept the Democratic nomination in an evening sparked with history. Forty five years after Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the speech known as "I have a dream," we ask whether the civil rights movement has achieved most of its goals. Guests: Derrick Alridge: Director and associate professor of African American Studies at the University of Georgia. By phone from Athens. Jelani Cobb....an Associate Professor of History at Spellman College and a columnist for The Root. Also: Spotlighter Interview is with NBC's Tom Brokaw.