Marine One carrying US President Barack Obama flies past the scaffolding-clad Washington Monument as it comes in to land at the White House in Washington on May 24, 2013 as Obama returned from Annapolis, Maryland, where he gave the commencement address at the Naval Academy.
U.S. President Barack Obama signs a bill designating the Congressional Gold Medal commemorating the lives of the four young girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, May 24, 2013.
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) gestures after signing a bill designating the Congressional Gold Medal commemorating the lives of the four young girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, May 24, 2013. Also pictured (L-R) are Lisa McNair (sister of bombing victim Denise McNair), Thelma "Maxine" Pippen McNair (mother of bombing victim McNair), Dianne Braddock (sister of bombing victim Carole Robertson) and Rev. Arthur Price (current pastor of 16th Street Baptist Church).
U.S. President Barack Obama (C) looks up after signing a bill designating the Congressional Gold Medal commemorating the lives of the four young girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing of Birmingham, Alabama, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, May 24, 2013. Pictured (L-R) are Sharon Malone (wife of Holder), U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL), Obama, Lisa McNair (sister of bombing victim Denise McNair) and Thelma "Maxine" Pippen McNair (mother of bombing victim McNair).
A protrester demanding the closing of the Guantanamo detention facility and the end of the ongoing hunger strike by 103 of the inmates wears a prisoner's jumpsuit and a hood outside the White House in Washington on May 24, 2013. US President Barack Obama Thursday laid out new guidelines for drone strikes abroad and launched a new bid to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, seeking to rein in a 'boundless' US war on terror.
US President Barack Obama speaks before signing the Congressional Gold Medal Bill honoring Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley on May 24, 2013 in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. The girls were killed in the September 15, 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The racially-motivated attack was a turning point in the US civi rights movement and contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The signing was attended by US Attorney General Eric Holder (2nd L) and his wife Sharon Malone (L).