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President Barack Obama embraces Eliana Pinckney, the daughter of the slain Rev. and South Carolina State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, during his funeral at the College of Charleston TD Arena, in Charleston, South Carolina on June 26, 2015.MANDEL NGAN/AFP / Getty Images

Barack Obama has seldom addressed race directly during his two terms in office, but his eulogy on Friday for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine people murdered in Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, was highly anticipated as an integral part of his public record on race.

March 18, 2008 Mr. Obama delivers his "A More Perfect Union" speech during the campaign for the Democratic nomination, directly addressing issues of race and inequality in the U.S. and denouncing controversial comments on race by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

"This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that, in fact, we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union."

July 22, 2009 Mr. Obama says police in Cambridge, Mass., acted "stupidly" in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who was erroneously reported as a burglar while trying to enter his own home.

"There's a long history in this country of African-Americans being stopped disproportionately by the police. … It's a sign of how race remains a factor in this society."

July 19, 2013 After George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Mr. Obama spoke out again about the teenager's death after comments he had made in March of that year.

"You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African-American community at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it's important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away."

Nov. 24, 2014 Mr. Obama called for peaceful protests and public order in Ferguson, Mo., in the wake of 18-year-old Michael Brown's death. After a grand jury did not indict the officer who shot Mr. Brown, Mr. Obama made another statement.

"Finally, we need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation. The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of colour. Some of this is the result of the legacy of racial discrimination in this country. And this is tragic, because nobody needs good policing more than poor communities with higher crime rates."

Dec. 17, 2014 Mr. Obama discusses his own experiences with racism and about addressing the issue with his family in the wake of protests over alleged police brutality in the deaths of Mr. Brown and Eric Garner, who died after a confrontation with New York police.

"We don't want [our daughters] to be constrained by any of these stereotypes. … So when something like Ferguson or the Trayvon Martin case happens, around the dinner table we're pointing out to them that too often in our society black boys are still perceived as more dangerous or riskier, they get less benefit of the doubt, and that it will be part of their task, their generation's task, to continue to try to eradicate some of those old stereotypes."

March 7, 2015 On the 50th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" violence in Selma, Ala., Mr. Obama gave a speech declaring the work of the civil-rights movement not yet over.

"We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, that racial division is inherent to America. If you think nothing's changed in the past 50 years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or Los Angeles of the 1950s. … Of course, a more common mistake is to suggest that Ferguson is an isolated incident; that racism is banished; that the work that drew men and women to Selma is now complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the "race card" for their own purposes. We don't need the Ferguson report to know that's not true. We just need to open our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts to know that this nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us."

June 22, 2015 In a podcast interview with comedian Marc Maron, Mr. Obama caused a stir when he invoked a racial slur.

"The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow, and that's still part of our DNA that's passed on. We are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say 'nigger' in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior."

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