TEMPE, Ariz. -- Carson Ray grew up in Atlanta, the birthplace and final resting place of one of America’s most influential historical figures, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Ray, a 16-year-old right-hander and one of more than 80 predominantly Black elite high school athletes invited to the 2024 DREAM Series, has always been intimately familiar with Dr. King’s legacy.

Ray’s grandfather, Charles Steele Jr., is the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an African American civil rights organization based in Atlanta. Its first president was none other than Dr. King himself.

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In January 1957, following the famous Montgomery bus boycott victory, Dr. King gathered a group of fellow Black church leaders to create an organization that would coordinate and support nonviolent efforts to desegregate bus systems all over the South. They would soon decide to expand the organization’s focus to ending all forms of segregation.

Steele made sure his grandson knew all about Dr. King’s life of service and impact on the nation.

“I learned a lot,” Ray said. “Where he used to grow up, how he used to do things, how he used to think. And the way my grandfather thinks, it’s kind of more like him, because he has to -- he was once in his position, so he has to think more like him. It’s a lot. And I’m blessed to be able to experience it.”

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The DREAM Series, a youth development event put on by Major League Baseball and USA Baseball, offers talented players from a diverse background an opportunity to receive instruction from current and former MLB players and managers, along with seminars, mentorship and scout evaluations.

The program, which was started in 2017, is intentionally held every year during Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend.

“It’s amazing to be a part of this, especially on MLK Day,” Ray said. “The teachings we get, the leadership that we learn. To know that he paved a way for us and we can be able to express that, that’s amazing.”

A fellow Atlanta native and member of the 1995 World Series champion Braves, Marquis Grissom is one of the former big leaguers tasked with coaching these DREAM Series participants as players and as people.

Born in the “mecca of the civil rights movement” three years after the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, Grissom is part of the first generation of Black people to be seen as equal in the eyes of the law.

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“We all grew up not only trying to make it to the Major Leagues, but trying to make a difference in the community and [figure out], ‘How can we change and impact the world?’” Grissom said. “That’s the takeaway that I got from Dr. Martin Luther King and all the historians around the state of Georgia who have impacted a lot of lives around the world.”

The four-time Gold Glove Award-winning center fielder has been able to do that in his own way with 18-year-old outfielder Denver Matthews. Matthews is committed to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) where Dr. King earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology at the age of 19.

The son of MLB vice president of baseball development Del Matthews, the younger Matthews has been part of many MLB Develops showcase events over the years. He and Grissom struck up a bond because they both play the same position, with Matthews even going down to Atlanta to watch old film of Grissom and work on his fundamentals with the 17-year big leaguer.

“It’s very special,” Matthews said. “The unity of Black baseball players, being able to express ourselves and have that freedom and carry out [Dr. King’s] legacy is very important.”

That spirit of camaraderie is what stands out most for the DREAM Series participants. Even though they’re competing at a high level, they also want to see each other succeed. It’s not often that they have an opportunity to play the game they love with people who look like them.

While overall diversity has been increasing at the Major League level, Black participation has been on a steady decline since the 1990s. These youth initiatives are an effort to correct course, and the players don’t take that mission lightly.

“You don’t have a lot of events like this. This event, it’s different,” said right-hander Ashton Yelder, a 17-year-old from Montgomery, Ala. “You get to be around a lot of African American players and … everybody here feels like my brother.”

Brotherhood was a concept that Dr. King spoke of time and again, including in his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital on Aug. 28, 1963:

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

These DREAM Series participants are a living embodiment of that dream.