On Monday, we remembered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose life was filled with an undying desire for freedom from inequality. His dream was to end racial prejudice, which had been a part of American life since the times of the slave trade.

In his letter from a Birmingham Jail, which he wrote after being arrested in Alabama for protesting racial segregation, King told white clergy members — people who opposed his campaign of protest — that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Although the Civil Rights movement was a success in many ways, another type of injustice still exists today — human trafficking. This contemporary slave trade certainly poses a threat to the justice that any human being is entitled to.

Human trafficking is defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as “a modern-day form of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain.” In other words, people are bought and sold to do work or to work in the sex industry. According to the DHS website, trafficking is the second most profitable transnational crime, bringing in $32 billion per year in illegal global revenue.

While we remember King in January, the month also happens to be Human Trafficking Awareness Month. The Wichita State Center for Combating Human Trafficking has organized several events for students to attend and learn about the modern-day slave trade — and how they can help. The Center’s motto for the month is “One is one too many,” meaning if just one person was enslaved in human trafficking, it would be one too many.

Even though students probably can’t find and rescue a victim of trafficking, they can learn about what trafficking is, what drives the demand and how to stop that demand by attending one or more of the events put on by the CCHT.

In addition to his letter, King also gave a famous speech in which he proclaimed his dream that all men would one day be treated equally. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, he said, “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.”

Yes, King was speaking about racial injustice, but I can apply his words to today’s injustices, as well. Now is the time to make justice a reality for those caught in human trafficking. Like King, I have a dream — that one day, we’ll no longer hear about hate crimes or racial profiling or human trafficking. I have a dream that this country — the greatest country in the world — can be better.

One person trafficked is one too many. Let’s do our part in stopping injustice now.