WASHINGTON DC— On August 28, 1963, 57 years ago to the date, the civil rights movement reached a climax as 250,000 men and women marched on Washington DC, let by Dr. Martin Luther King JR. Among the people who heard MLK utter the words, I HAVE A DREAM, in person, was William Felton Russell.

Bill Russell has devoted his entire life to being an activist and champion for social justice and civil rights. As Russell was forging his way into the history books as the greatest winner in sports history (a mantle he still holds), it wasn’t his basketball skills he wanted to be remembered for, it was his character as a man— as a human being.

Nearly 60 years later, Russell is of course remembered as the G.O.A.T on sports, how could you not be with a record such as his (11 NBA championships, NCAA championships, high school championships, Olympic gold medal), but it’s his participation in, and contributions to the struggle for social justice, equal rights, civility and humanity that Mr. Russell is revered for, far outside the realm of sports.

Since the death of Red Auerbach, Bill Russell has become the “patriarch” of the Boston Celtics, the team he played his entire career for and became the first African American coach to win a major title in any sport. With the recent deaths of the last surviving members of the MLK movement, most notably, Senator John Lewis, Russell now also becomes the guiding light to young men and women of color today who are still trying to capture the dream that Dr. King spoke of that warm summer day in August 1963.

God bless Bill Russell, champion of sport, champion of life.