President Barack Obama is marking the 45th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" by praising "these heroes" who marched into history and endured beatings by Alabama state troopers at the start of their landmark voting rights trek.
The nation's first black president says that despite all the progress since "that terrible day in Selma," more still needs to be done.
Marchers were a few blocks into their Selma-to-Montgomery march on March 7, 1965, when they were beaten by troopers on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge — an event that became known as "Bloody Sunday."
The march was later completed under federal protection, with Martin Luther King Jr. leading it. It led to passage of the Voting Rights Act, which opened Southern polling places to blacks and ended all-white government.
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