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Obama says will attend 50th anniversary of historic Selma marches

Americans march from Selma to Montgomery on March 21, 1965.

US President Barack Obama says he and his family will travel to Selma, Alabama, on March 7 for the 50th anniversary of the historic civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery.

"Next week, the world will turn its eyes to Selma again," Obama said on Thursday at the African American History Month Reception at the White House.

The first black US president said he will visit Selma with his wife Michelle and two teenage daughters to pay tribute "to those who changed the course of history" fifty years ago.

"Next week, Michelle and I and the girls will be traveling to Selma to pay tribute, not just as a president or a first lady or as African Americans, but as Americans for those who changed the course of history at the Independence Bridge," he said.

The three Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 served as the catalyst for passage of the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act, a landmark achievement of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement.

On Sunday March 7, 1965, known as Bloody Sunday, Alabama state troopers violently attacked more than 600 peaceful activists, who were demanding voting rights for African American citizens, as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

Obama hailed "the countless American heroes whose names aren't in the history books, that aren't etched on marble somewhere -- ordinary men and women from all corners of this nation, all walks of life, black and white, rich and poor, students, scholars, maids, ministers -- all who marched and who sang and organized to change this country for the better."

The US Congress has passed legislation to honor the people who made it possible. The congressional gold medals will be awarded to the thousands of civil rights activists who marched on Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday and the final stretch of the 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery.

"This bill, I believe, is a fitting honor that recognizes the courage and determination of the civil rights marchers at Selma 50 years ago," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said of the legislation that sailed through the Senate on Thursday. 

"It was a very historic day, and it marked an alteration in the history of America. It changed an unacceptable abuse of American rights: the right to vote," Sessions added.

The House of the Representatives passed the legislation last month. Obama will now sign the bill into law.

GJH/GJH


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