Fewer Than Half of Americans See Progress in Racial Equality

Numbers have faded since high following Obama's election

Has the U.S. achieved Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of a colorblind society? Fewer than half of all Americans say the country has made substantial progress in the past 50 years toward racial equality, a new poll shows.

Despite a heightened sense of racial progress immediately following the 2008 election of the first black president, Americans' views of black progress have waned.

The study, released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, offers a mixed picture of progress five decades after King made his historic "I Have a Dream" speech calling for racial equality. The center is a Washington-based research organization.