WASHINGTON—From the spot where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. relayed his vision of a color-blind nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on Americans to work toward greater racial equality and economic opportunity.
The president was joined by a parade of dignitaries, stars and civil-rights leaders in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that paved the way for civil-rights legislation.
The observance took place on a steamy, drizzly day, but a celebratory mood took hold as marchers followed a 1.6-mile route from Capitol Hill and packed the park surrounding the Lincoln Memorial, where Mr. Obama and others spoke.
Mr. Obama, recalling Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech to the marchers in 1963, used his remarks to link the black civil-rights struggle to the goal of offering "a fair shot'' at reaching the middle class to all Americans, regardless of race.
He described economic inequality in stark terms, drawing a contrast between impoverished youth facing "diminished prospects" and the "fortunate few" benefiting from exploding corporate profits.
The 'Dream,' Then and Now
Compare images of Wednesday's march and rally and the historic civil-rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
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People from across the country recite excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of his March on Washington.
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Mr. Obama noted that the marchers five decades ago "were there seeking jobs as well as justice; not just the absence of oppression but the presence of economic opportunity.'' He added: "For what does it profit a man, Dr. King would ask, to sit at an integrated lunch counter if he can't afford the meal?"
Topping a week of commemorative events, Wednesday's official program featured dignitaries including former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and civil-rights leaders such as Georgia Rep. John Lewis, the only surviving speaker from the 1963 march, who led the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee at the time.
Former President George W. Bush had been invited but declined due to a recent heart stent procedure, his office said.
Celebrities from Forest Whitaker to Oprah Winfrey also spoke, as did Dr. King's sister, Christine King Farris, who said that "Martin's dream is a vision not yet to be realized, a dream yet unfilled, and we have much to do before we can celebrate the dream as reality, as the suppression of voting rights and horrific violence…has so painfully demonstrated."
That unfinished business was the informal theme of the day. Stanley Miller, 58, a retired Washington, D.C., bus driver, said during the march that he fears younger people have "let the reins go." Young African-Americans, Mr. Miller said, have benefited from 50 years of struggle, and are now caught up in the need to get ahead and don't fully understand or appreciate the movement's history of sacrifice.
At Wednesday's observance Mr. Lewis, who was nearly killed several times while leading protests in the segregated South, drew wild applause and tears with his remarks on the history of the movement and the remaining work to be done.
"Sometime I hear people saying nothing has changed, but for someone to grow up the way I grew up in the cotton fields of Alabama to now be serving in the U.S. Congress makes me want to tell them come and walk in my shoes," Mr. Lewis said to cheers.
Mr. Obama spoke of racial disparities, saying that amid the many advances for African-Americans over 50 years, black unemployment "has remained almost twice as high as white unemployment'' and that "the gap in wealth between the races has not lessened; it's grown.''
But he also cast the nation's economic challenges as transcending race, saying that "the position of all working Americans, regardless of color, has eroded'' amid wage stagnation and weakening prospects for upward mobility.
Many who turned out for the day's events said they felt like they were part of history.
Cassandra Martin, 42, a nurse from Washington, D.C., said the issues facing the country today aren't that different than those of 1963. "What was then is still relevant today,'' she said.
Rodger Selby, a 17-year-old high-school student from Philadelphia, said that while racism can't be fully eliminated, "with these sorts of events, it gets weaker and weaker.''
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