President Barack Obama stands with his wife Michelle Obama and former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton during the ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom  in Washington yesterday.

Reuters/Washington

America is struggling to fully realise the vision that civil rights leader Martin Luther King described in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech 50 years ago, as the goal of economic security for all remains elusive, President Barack Obama said yesterday.

Obama, the first black US president, spoke to thousands of marchers on Washington’s National Mall yesterday to commemorate King’s landmark address, which came to symbolise the struggle for equality among blacks and whites in America.

Obama said King’s speech inspired millions of Americans to fight for a more just society and rights that people now take for granted.

“To dismiss the magnitude of this progress, to suggest, as some sometimes do, that little has changed, that dishonours the courage, the sacrifice of those who paid the price to march in those years,” Obama said.

“But we would dishonour those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is somehow complete,” he said, calling economic justice the “unfinished business” of the civil rights battle.

Marchers, many wearing T-shirts with King’s face on them, began their walk near the US Capitol.

They were led by a line of military veterans and people who had been at the 1963 march, their arms linked. People sang “We Shall Overcome” and other civil rights anthems.

Fighting restrictive voting rights laws that Democrats say hurt minorities, combating joblessness and reducing gun violence among African Americans are among the issues that civil rights leaders put at the forefront of their efforts in 2013.

“This march was supposed to be about jobs, but it’s about a lot more,” said marcher Ash Mobley, 27, of Washington, who said she was there to represent her grandmother, who had been at the 1963 event.

The marchers heard speeches from former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and members of King’s family on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the site of King’s address on August 28, 1963.