Obama to stand in MLK's shadow, 50 years on
WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama will lead his nation in homage Wednesday to Martin Luther King Jr, at the spot where the civil rights icon voiced a soaring dream of equality 50 years ago.
In a moment of high symbolism, America's first black president will reflect on King's legacy and the long march to fulfill the hopes of the "I have a dream" speech, delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
The event has thrown a spotlight on Obama's own historic story -- which he has said would not have been possible but for King's crusade to end racial discrimination.
But though his White House tenure marks a pinnacle of African American political achievement, some in the community have criticized the president for devoting insufficient time to a group plagued by deep social problems and barriers to advancement.
Obama said Tuesday he was still working on his own remarks but quipped "it won't be as good as the speech 50 years ago."
"When you are talking about Dr King's speech at the March on Washington, you're talking about one of the maybe five greatest speeches in American history," Obama said on the Tom Joyner radio show.
Crowds were already gathering on the National Mall in Washington four hours before Obama was due to speak.
A several thousand strong crowd also marched through the streets of the capital.
One young African American girl with pigtails held up a placard reading: "Dr King is our hero!"
A little blond white boy held up a banner reading "I have a dream."
Obama argues that King, assassinated in 1968, would have been amazed at some of the progress since his remarks in 1963, including towards equal rights before the law for African Americans.
But he admitted that as King's March on Washington was about jobs, his fellow Nobel peace laureate would bemoan deprivation still felt by many blacks, especially in the inner cities.
"It's not enough just to have a black president ... the question is, (can) the ordinary person, day-to-day, can they succeed?" he said.
Obama has sought to ensure that though he is the first black president of the United States, his administration should not be defined by race.
He argues that he is the president of all Americans. On only a few occasions since taking office has Obama stepped up and addressed his nation's scarred racial past and sometimes uneasy present.
In his most direct intervention, just weeks ago, he gave an unusually sweeping discourse after a trial into the killing of a black teenager in Florida.
"Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago," Obama said of the victim, voicing anguish felt in the black community over what many see as racial profiling of many young African American men.
As part of the commemorations of King's speech on Wednesday, church bells will ring across the country.
Obama will be paying tribute to King's creed of non-violence at a poignant moment -- as he considers a US military strike against Syria.
He will be joined by former presidents Jimmy Carter, a fellow Nobel peace prize winner, and Bill Clinton at the ceremony.
Former Republican president George W. Bush issued a statement paying tribute to King, who was 34 when he gave the speech.
"Dr King looked out over the American capital and uttered simple, powerful words that changed the hearts of millions," Bush said.
An estimated 250,000 people descended on the Mall in the sweltering heat on August 28, 1963, chanting "Equality now!" and singing "We Shall Overcome," in what was officially billed as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Departing from his prepared text, King declared: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal'."
The march helped set the stage for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed major forms of racial discrimination, followed a year later by the Voting Rights Act designed to guarantee the franchise for all black US citizens.
