Obama Marks Civil-Rights Turning Point in Selma Speech

Fifty years after a historic civil-rights confrontation at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., President Barack Obama traveled there to commemorate the marchers with a soaring speech that celebrated how far the U.S. has come, but also criticized what he considers modern-day assaults on voting rights.

Mr. Obama spoke at the foot of the bridge before some 40,000 people, at an event fraught with symbolism, as the nation’s first African-American president honored those who fought to enfranchise blacks. Among those who joined him on stage were first lady Michelle...