The nation paused to remember Martin Luther King Jr. Monday with parades, marches and service projects.

King was born Jan. 15, 1929, and the federal holiday is the third Monday in January.

In Portland, Former Defense Secretary and U.S. Sen. William Cohen is addressing the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast hosted by the Portland NAACP.

Cohen said that 50 years after King delivered his “I have a dream” speech that there’s been progress in racial equality. But he said King’s dream “has not been fully realized.” He called on Mainers “to rededicate ourselves to the work that remains to be done so that all Americans can realize the dream Martin Luther King challenged our nation to achieve.”

The event is being held Monday at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.

This year’s event falls during the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In King’s hometown of Atlanta, a service was planned at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King was pastor. In Memphis, Tenn., where King was assassinated, an audio recording of an interview with King would be played at the National Civil Rights Museum. The recording sheds new light on a phone call President John F. Kennedy made to King’s wife more than 50 years ago.

Historians generally agree Kennedy’s phone call to Coretta Scott King expressing concern over her husband’s arrest in October 1960 ”“ and Robert Kennedy’s work behind the scenes to get King released ”“ helped JFK win the White House.

In Ann Arbor, Mich., activist and entertainer Harry Belafonte planned to deliver the keynote address for the 28th annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium on Monday morning at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium.