SELMA: President Barack Obama will call for a new generation of Americans to take up the torch kindled by civil rights leaders 50 years ago in Selma, Alabama, when he visits the historic town Saturday.
America's first black president will stand at the famed Edmund Pettus Bridge, accompanied by wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, to argue that events half a century ago are not confined to history, a White House official said.
On March 7, 1965, some 600 peaceful voting rights 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 Martin Luther King.
Obama has often said his journey from Chicago community activist to the White House would not be possible without the likes of King and Selma marcher and now Congressman John Lewis.
"He views Selma as something more than a piece of history we celebrate every once in a while," a White House official told AFP.
"The whole family will be going, and he is eager to take the opportunity to remind his own daughters of their obligations to this country, and perhaps encourage their generation to pick up the torch that the marchers in Selma passed on to us."
He will tell the crowd it is still true that "ordinary people who love their country can change it."
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