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Standing before the landmark Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark a historic moment in the civil rights movement, US President Barack Obama rallied a new generation of Americans to the spirit of the civil rights struggle, warning that their march for freedom "is not yet finished".
In a forceful speech on Saturday in Selma, Alabama on the 50th anniversary of the brutal repression of a peaceful protest, America's first black president denounced new attempts to restrict voting rights.
And he paid stirring tribute to the sacrifice of a generation of activists who marched so that black Americans could enjoy civil rights and opened the road that eventually led him to the White House.

"We gather here to celebrate them," he declared, standing on the spot where Alabama state troopers launched an assault on the marchers in scenes that shocked America.
"We gather here to honour 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."
After the Selma march and others like it, then President Lyndon Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act that sought to prevent racist officials from excluding black Americans from the ballot.
That law, Obama said, is again under threat from state governments seeking to tighten voter registration rules in a bit to restrict the size of the franchise.
"How can that be?" he asked, noting that previous Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George W Bush - who was present for the speech - had renewed it.
"One hundred members of Congress have come here today to honour people who were willing to die for the right to protect it," he declared. "If we want to honour this day, let those hundred go back to Washington and gather four hundred more and together pledge to make it their mission to restore the law this year."
After the speech, Obama and Bush joined a 50-strong group singing Keep Your Eyes on the Prize to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge - named after a Confederate general and Klu Klux Klan leader.
In his speech, Obama also addressed recent incidents in which police killings of unarmed black men and teenagers had triggered protests. "We just need to open our eyes and ears and hearts, to know that this nation's long racial history still casts its long shadow upon us. We know the march is not yet over, the race is not yet won," he said.
On March 7, 1965, some 600 peaceful activists were attacked by police with clubs and tear gas at the bridge, a seminal moment in America's democracy.
The history of what happened at Selma on "Bloody Sunday" has recently returned to prominence thanks to an Oscar-nominated film starring actor David Oyelowo as civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr.

But the president's address also comes as today's rights leaders wrestle with police treatment of black Americans. A probe by Obama's Justice Department unearthed deep police racism in Ferguson, Missouri, where a white policeman shot dead an unarmed black teenager on August 9, sparking civil unrest and a national outcry.
On the eve of the Selma anniversary, protests broke out in the northern state of Wisconsin after another unarmed black teenager was shot by police, which said he had attacked an officer.
The police violence in Selma and the dignified determination of the marchers are widely seen as the factors that made it possible to swing America behind civil rights measures such as the Voting Rights Act.


Obama in Selma: 'Our march is not over'

US President Barack Obama (sixth left) and US Congressman John Lewis (fifth left), one of the marchers 50 years ago, lead a walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Photo: AFP

Barack Obama says the battle is not over.

Dr Martin Luther King Jnr rallies marchers in Selma 50 years ago to push for voting rights for blacks. Photo: AP

Selma march at the landmark Edmund Pettus Bridge. Photo: AP

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Obama rallies new generation at landmark bridge of the civil rights movement to continue to fight efforts to disenfranchise minorities


Obama rallies new generation at landmark bridge of the civil rights movement to continue to fight efforts to disenfranchise minorities.


Obama in Selma: 'Our march is not over'

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Obama rallies new generation at landmark bridge of the civil rights movement to continue to fight efforts to disenfranchise minorities

Obama rallies new generation at landmark bridge of the civil rights movement to continue to fight efforts to disenfranchise minorities