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Obama: History 'met on this bridge'
07:44 - Source: CNN
CNN  — 

One presidential historian called it President Barack Obama’s “I Have A Dream Speech.”

Another historian called it “powerful” and “moving.”

On Saturday, the President gave impassioned remarks during the events commemorating “Bloody Sunday,” the day 50 years ago when Alabama state troopers brutally beat people marching in Selma for voting rights.

“I think this is President Obama’s “I Have a Dream” speech for the 21 century,” said CNN Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley. “It was brilliantly written and he delivered it in a flawless fashion as if he was from the church pulpit. It reminded me a lot of a Walt Whitman poem, or a Carl Sandberg (work), or Archibald MacLeish. There was a poetic integrity to the words.”

Julian Zelizer, a historian from Princeton University, said it had similar characteristics to Rev. Martin Luther King’s 1963 speech in Washington where the civil rights icon called for the end of racism.

“It was a very powerful speech and moving speech and a beautifully written speech,” Zelizer said.

Even people who disagree with Obama’s politics tweeted about his oratory skill.

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