Obama: US Racial History 'Casts Long Shadow'

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Barack Obama has said that America's racial history "still casts its long shadow" upon the nation despite 50 years of progress.

Speaking on the anniversary of the 'Bloody Sunday' march in Selma, Alabama, the President praised civil rights activists who struggled for equal voting rights.

"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," Mr Obama said.

"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."

Thousands gathered in the riverside town of Selma for commemorations to mark the civil rights protests of 7 March, 1965.

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Gallery: Selma: Thousands Remember Civil Rights Landmark

Thousands have been gathering in Selma, Alabama, to mark the 50th anniversary of a landmark event in the civil rights movement

President Barack Obama will make a speech in the town of roughly 20,000, where in 1965 police attacked marchers demonstrating for voting rights

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'Bloody Sunday' is seen as building momentum for congressional approval of the Voting Rights Act later that year

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On that day 50 years ago the marchers tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the way to Montgomery, and the Obama family will take part in a ceremonial walk across it

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On the way to Selma, President Obama signed a resolution to grant the Congressional Gold Medal to the 'foot soldiers' who participated in the 1965 march

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The event 50 years ago became the first of three marches which saw activists attempt to walk to Montgomery to demand an end to discrimination against black voters.

The marchers were attacked with tear gas and clubs by state troopers.

Violent scenes broadcast on national television shocked the nation and emboldened leaders in Washington to pass the Voting Rights Act five months later.

Mr Obama described the activists as "warriors of justice" who strove to usher in an era of equality in America.

"So much of our turbulent history - the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war, the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow, the death of four little girls in Birmingham, and the dream of a Baptist preacher - met on this bridge," he said.

"It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills - a contest to determine the meaning of America."

Mr Obama spoke after Georgia Representative John Lewis, a leader of the Selma march who was severely beaten by police in 1965.

"There's still work left to be done," Mr Lewis told the crowd.

"Get out there and push and pull until we redeem the soul of America."

Selma has been propelled into the global spotlight with the release of a Hollywood film bearing the city's name and the controversy over its shortage of Oscar nominations.

The anniversary comes with America digesting the report from the Department of Justice detailing racial bias in Ferguson, a city which saw violent protests over the killing of an unarmed black man by a white police officer last summer.

Speaking ahead of the event in Selma, Mr Obama labelled what happened in Ferguson as "oppressive and abusive".

"What we saw was that the Ferguson Police Department, in conjunction with the municipality, saw traffic stops, arrests, tickets as a revenue generator, as opposed to serving the community, and that it systematically was biased against African-Americans in that city who were stopped, harassed, mistreated, abused, called names, fined," he said.

Mr Obama added that Ferguson must now make a decision about how to move forward.

"Are they going to enter into some sort of agreement with the Justice Department to fix what is clearly a broken and racially biased system?" Mr Obama said.

"Or, if they don't, then the Justice Department has the capacity to sue the city for violations of the rights of the people of Ferguson."

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Congor Mangap