Midday Roundup: Obama recounts racial strife on Selma anniversary

Progress made, progress needed. President Barack Obama and a group of political leaders gathered in Selma, Ala., Saturday to remember a transformative event in the Civil Rights movement. “We know the march is not yet over; we know the race is not yet won,” Obama said in an address near the historic bridge where police battered a group of peaceful protesters 50 years ago. The president said racism still exists in the country and referenced a Justice Department investigation that found rampant racism in the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department. But he also said Americans have made progress against racism in the past 50 years: “To deny this progress, this hard-won progress, our progress, would be to rob us of our own agency, our own capacity, our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.”

Usual suspects? Russian authorities Saturday arrested a group of men for the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and tied his death to Islamist outrage. The suspects hail from Chechnya or other parts of the Northern Caucasus, a heavily Islamic region that has rebelled against Moscow in the past. The Kremlin claims Nemtsov offended the prime suspect, Zaur Dadaev, with comments he made after the Charlie Hebdo attack. But critics of President Vladimir Putin aren’t buying it and still blame the Kremlin for taking out one of its most vocal critics.

Police response. Peaceful protests are underway in Madison, Wis., where a police officer shot and killed an unarmed, 19-year-old man Friday night. The Madison Police Department has released the name of the officer involved and details about the incident. Officer Matt Kenny shot Tony Robinson while investigating a disturbance in an apartment. Kenny has been placed on leave, and the department has ordered an independent investigation of the shooting.

One year later. Sunday marked one year since Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared over the Indian Ocean with 239 passengers and crew on board. An international search effort has combed 1.8 million square miles of ocean and found no sign of the plane. Officials expect the search to continue through May. If nothing is found by then, the searchers will have to go “back to the drawing board,” Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told BBC.

Caught on tape. An Oklahoma University fraternity had to close its doors after a video leaked to the internet showing members yelling an unquestionably racist chant. The chant uses a racial slur to refer to black people and expresses acceptance for hanging them from trees. The national Sigma Alpha Epsilon organization ordered the OU chapter closed Sunday and suspended its members. The university’s president and the OU Interfraternity Council condemned the behavior. The fraternity house has since been vandalized with graffiti.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.