Obama: America's racial history casts 'long shadow upon us'

US President Barack Obama has addressed a commemorative ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the historic civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, saying America's racial history "still casts a long shadow upon us".

"We just need to open our eyes, and ears, and hearts, to know that this nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us," Obama said on Saturday, addressing thousands of people from across the country packed the town of Selma, Alabama, for commemorations of the march on March 7, 1965.

"We know the march is not yet over, the race is not yet won, and that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character - requires admitting as much," he said, speaking in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the riverside town.

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 American heroes who marched to change the country for the better. "We gather here to celebrate them. We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod; tear gas and the trampling hoof; men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their North Star and keep marching toward justice."

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.

Earlier in his speech Obama said, “Selma teaches us, too, that action requires that we shed our cynicism. For when it comes to the pursuit of justice, we can afford neither complacency nor despair."

He called the civil rights marches of 1965 a global inspiration for revolutionaries. "From the streets of Tunis to the Maidan in Ukraine, this generation of young people can draw strength from this place, where the powerless could change the world's greatest superpower, and push their leaders to expand the boundaries of freedom.”

GJH/GJH

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk