WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- More than two-thirds of African-Americans believe Martin Luther King Jr. 's vision for race relations has been fulfilled , a CNN poll found -- a figure up sharply from a survey in early 2008 . Martin Luther King Jr. waves to supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 , 1963 . The CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey was released Monday , a federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader and a day before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as the first black U.S. president . The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King 's vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since his 1963 `` I have a dream '' speech -- roughly double the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March . But whites remain less optimistic , the survey found . `` Whites do n't feel the same way -- a majority of them say that the country has not yet fulfilled King 's vision , '' CNN polling director Keating Holland said . However , the number of whites saying the dream has been fulfilled has also gone up since March , from 35 percent to 46 percent . In the 1963 speech , delivered to a civil rights rally on the Mall in Washington , King said : `` I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin , but by the content of their character . '' Watch Obama speak at Lincoln Memorial on Sunday » . `` Has that dream been fulfilled ? With the election of Barack Obama , two thirds of African-Americans believe it has , '' CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said . `` Most blacks and whites went to bed on election night saying , ' I never thought I 'd live to see the day . ' That 's what the nation is celebrating on this King holiday : We have lived to see the day , '' Schneider said . Watch Schneider 's analysis of pre-inauguration polls » . What about the Voting Rights Act , one of the signature achievements of the civil rights movement , which will be reviewed by the Supreme Court later this year ? Two-thirds of blacks questioned in the poll say the U.S. still needs the Voting Rights Act today , but white respondents are split down the middle over whether that law is still necessary . In November , a majority of black respondents said that Obama 's victory signaled a new era in race relations . The poll suggests that a majority today no longer feels that way , although most blacks predict some improvement on racial issues . `` In the immediate aftermath of Barack Obama 's victory in November , African-Americans were cautiously optimistic about the future of race relations in the U.S. , but some of that optimism has faded since that time , '' Holland added . In November , a majority of blacks for the first time believed that the U.S. would eventually find a solution to its racial problems ; now a majority of blacks believe that race relations will always be a problem in this country . Blacks do believe that the Obama presidency will be good for them -- 61 percent say that the quality of life for African-Americans will improve over the next four years . Optimism for a new era has also dropped among whites . `` We saw a burst of enthusiasm about race relations immediately after Obama 's election . The initial excitement has cooled a bit . But most blacks and whites still foresee some improvement in race relations , '' Schneider said . The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted January 12-15 . Pollsters questioned 1,245 adult Americans , including 798 whites and 332 blacks , by telephone . The survey 's sampling error is 3 percentage points for the overall sample and 4.5 percentage points for the breakdowns by race .
69 percent of blacks polled say Martin Luther King Jr 's vision realized . Slim majority of whites say King 's vision not fulfilled . King gave his `` I have a dream '' speech in 1963 .