President Obama to assess America 50 years after Martin Luther King’s “dream” speech

President Obama will follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King later today when he will stand on the same steps Dr King did 50 years ago to give his iconic “I have a Dream” speech.

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, America’s first black president is expected to chart the advances and the setbacks in his country’s march away from racial prejudice.

Although the White House has given few clues as to what Mr Obama will say, aides said that he wrote much of the speech himself and that it will aim to connect America’s youth with the struggles of the 1960s Civil Rights generation.

“Each generation has an obligation to pick up the baton,” Valerie Jarrett, one of Mr Obama’s closest advisors, told TIME.

“We want young people to feel a sense of responsibility to take that baton and run with it.” Mr Obama will acknowledge the strides made since Dr King’s time, when segregation was still the norm across the southern United States and civil rights demonstrations were met with police batons and fire hoses.

President Obama is also expected to challenge today’s Americans to face up to ongoing inequality in wealth and education as well as discrimination in the criminal justice system.