On March 7, 2015, President of the United States Barack Obama delivered a speech at Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches on the subject of race relations within the United States. Among the estimated 40,000 present [1] were former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, and Amelia Boynton Robinson, John Lewis, Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, and many other 'foot soldiers' who had taken part in the march in 1965. [2]
The formal writing process for the speech began on February 25, working closely with speechwriter Cody Keenan. [3] In preparation, Keenan had read works by Taylor Branch and had been watching speeches by Rep. John Lewis. A few days earlier, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had made remarks about whether President Obama loved America, leading Keenan to suggest that the speech focus on patriotism. [4] The first draft was completed on March 5, two days before the address, and Obama instructed Keenan to add references to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. [4] The speech went through five drafts before March 7, [3] with Obama still making tweaks on the flight to Alabama. [4]
Following an introduction by Rep. John Lewis, who was injured in the Selma to Montgomery marches, President Obama discussed the Selma to Montgomery marches in the context of historic events: "There are places, and moments in America where this nation's destiny has been decided, ... Selma is such a place". [5] He spoke of how the marches led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, "echoing their call for America and the world to hear: 'We shall overcome'".
Obama went on to discuss the denigration of those who marched: "Their faith was questioned. Their lives were threatened. Their patriotism challenged." [6] He continued to assert the patriotism of such protesters asking, "what could be more American than what happened in this place?" He stated, "Selma is not some outlier in the American experience", but is "the manifestation of a creed written into our founding documents", quoting the Preamble to the United States Constitution:
We the People...in order to form a more perfect union.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
Obama then addressed the motivations behind the Civil Rights Movement, an "American instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge". [6] The events at Selma, Obama argued, triggered popular movements for civil rights elsewhere in the world:
Young people behind the Iron Curtain would see Selma and eventually tear down that wall. Young people in Soweto would hear Bobby Kennedy talk about ripples of hope and eventually banish the scourge of apartheid. Young people in Burma went to prison rather than submit to military rule. They saw what John Lewis had done. [6]
Continuing, Obama talked about the impact of campaigns such as the Selma marches, saying "the change these men and women wrought is visible here today in the presence of African Americans who run boardrooms, who sit on the bench, who serve in elected office from small towns to big cities; from the Congressional Black Caucus all the way to the Oval Office". The actions of activists meant that "the doors of opportunity swung open not just for black folks, but for every American". [6]
Turning to the present day, Obama discussed the events of Ferguson, stating that the Department of Justice's report "evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the Civil Rights Movement." However he "rejected the notion that nothing's changed", citing the de jure , and practical, advances in civil rights on the basis of race, gender and sexuality. He also rejected that the "Ferguson is an isolated incident", saying "this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us." [1] He described how, with "effort, we can make sure our criminal justice system serves all and not just some", and "raise the level of mutual trust that policing is built on". He referenced the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, [7] saying "police officers are members of the community they risk their lives to protect, and citizens in Ferguson and New York and Cleveland, they just want the same thing young people here marched for 50 years ago — the protection of the law." He criticized "unfair sentencing and overcrowded prisons" and the circumstances which "rob too many boys of the chance to become men, and rob the nation of too many men who could be good dads, and good workers, and good neighbors."
He went on to discuss the present state of the Voting Rights Act, as a result of Shelby County v. Holder (2013): [8] "the Voting Rights Act stands weakened, its future subject to political rancor." He praised the bipartisan efforts that contributed to the Act, citing the renewals of the bill that Presidents Reagan and Bush signed into law. He called upon the 100 members of congress present to "go back to Washington and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore that law this year." [6] Obama lamented low voter turnouts, asking: "How do we so casually discard the right for which so many fought? ... Why are we pointing to somebody else when we could take the time just to go to the polling places?" [6]
He went on to discuss American exceptionalism, citing that America was "born of change". He listed individuals and groups who exemplified the spirit of restless change, and compared the Civil Rights Movement to other such campaigns, saying "We're the gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge." He highlighted the community efforts required for change: [6]
Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person. Because the single-most powerful word in our democracy is the word "We." "We The People." "We Shall Overcome." "Yes We Can."
Obama then paid tribute to the activists whose work made later changes possible: "Our job's easier because somebody already got us through that first mile." He quoted Isaiah 40:31:
Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on [the] wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.
Concluding his remarks, Obama drew on another quote from Isaiah, saying:
We honor those who walked so we could run. We must run so our children soar. And we will not grow weary. For we believe in the power of an awesome God, and we believe in this country's sacred promise. [9]
Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau hailed the speech as "certainly among [Obama's] very best." [3] According to leading George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, the speech "falls into the category of speeches that every child should read in school." [10]
The speech was described in The New York Times as:
reminiscent of Mr. Obama’s 2004 address to the Democratic National Convention; his speech on race in Philadelphia during the 2008 Democratic primaries; and some of his more impassioned moments on the campaign trail. [3]
The Washington Post opined that this speech would be most enduring in the history books. [10]
John Robert Lewis was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966, and was one of the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington. Fulfilling many key roles in the civil rights movement and its actions to end legalized racial segregation in the United States, in 1965 Lewis led the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where, in an incident which became known as Bloody Sunday, state troopers and police attacked Lewis and the other marchers.
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression; they were part of a broader voting rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South. By highlighting racial injustice, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the civil rights movement.
Amelia Isadora Platts Boynton Robinson was an American activist who was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama, and a key figure in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. In 1984, she became founding vice-president of the Schiller Institute affiliated with Lyndon LaRouche. She was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Medal in 1990. Robinson was a centenarian reaching the age of 104.
Diane Judith Nash is an American civil rights activist, and a leader and strategist of the student wing of the Civil Rights Movement.
Matthew Scully is an American author, journalist, and political writer who has also written on animal welfare.
Jon Ellis Meacham is an American writer, reviewer, historian and presidential biographer who is serving as the current Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral since November 7, 2021. A former executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, he is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time magazine, and a former editor-in-chief of Newsweek. He is the author of several books. He won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Endowed Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt University.
Cordy Tindell Vivian was an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. Vivian resided in Atlanta, Georgia, and founded the C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute, Inc. He was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Jonathan Edward Favreau is an American political commentator, podcaster, and the former director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama.
Terrycina Andrea "Terri" Sewell is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served since 2011 as the U.S. representative for Alabama's 7th congressional district, which includes most of the Black Belt, as well as most of the predominantly black portions of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Montgomery.
The Report to the American People on Civil Rights was a speech on civil rights, delivered on radio and television by United States President John F. Kennedy from the Oval Office on June 11, 1963 in which he proposed legislation that would later become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Expressing civil rights as a moral issue, Kennedy moved past his previous appeals to legality and asserted that the pursuit of racial equality was a just cause. The address signified a shift in his administration's policy towards strong support of the civil rights movement and played a significant role in shaping his legacy as a proponent of civil rights.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge carries U.S. Route 80 Business across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named after Edmund Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. senator, and state-level leader of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. The bridge is a steel through arch bridge with a central span of 250 feet (76 m). Nine large concrete arches support the bridge and roadway on the east side.
Barack Obama, then-president of the United States, delivered a speech at the Together We Thrive: Tucson and America memorial on January 12, 2011, held in the McKale Center on the University of Arizona campus.
Mark K. Updegrove is an American author, historian, journalist, and Presidential Historian for ABC News. He is the president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation in Austin, Texas. Previously, he served as the director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum for eight years.
The second inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States was the 57th inauguration, marking the commencement of his second and final term, with Joe Biden as Vice President. A private swearing-in ceremony took place on Sunday, January 20, 2013, in the Blue Room of the White House, followed by a public inauguration ceremony on Monday, January 21, 2013, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Before his presidency, he served in the Illinois Senate (1997–2004) and the United States Senate (2005–2008).
Selma is a 2014 historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches initiated and directed by James Bevel and led by Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, and John Lewis. The film stars actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, and Common as Bevel.
Frederick Douglas Reese was an American civil rights activist, educator and minister from Selma, Alabama. Known as a member of Selma's "Courageous Eight", Reese was the president of the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) when it invited the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King Jr. to Selma to amplify the city's local voting rights campaign. This campaign eventually gave birth to the Selma to Montgomery marches, which later led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Cody Keenan is an American political advisor and speechwriter who served as the director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Keenan studied political science at Northwestern University. After graduation, he worked in the U.S. senate office of Ted Kennedy, before studying for a master's in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. After graduation, he took a full-time position on Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008. In 2009, he assumed the position of deputy director of speechwriting. After Jon Favreau left the White House in 2013, Keenan took over as director of speechwriting.
Barack Obama's farewell address was the final public speech of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, delivered on January 10, 2017 at 9:00 p.m. EST. The farewell address was broadcast on various television and radio stations and livestreamed online by the White House. An estimated 24 million people watched the address live on television.
Media related to 50th Anniversary of the Selma Marches at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Barack Obama Selma 50th anniversary speech at Wikiquote
