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"I am aware the African American vote has been very small in favor of the Republican Party," McCain told reporters. But, he added, "I'm going to be the president of all the people."
McCain gave a speech near the Edmund Pettus Bridge, recalling the beatings of civil rights marchers there in 1965 as he embarked on a weeklong tour of places that suffer from poverty and inattention.
His appearance drew about 100 people, most of them white, in a town 70 percent black.
Last year, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton visited Selma to mark the anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" march.
Yesterday, the Arizona senator described in vivid detail the clubbing that fractured the skull of John Lewis, now a Democratic congressman from Georgia. McCain, who speaks often of courage shown by military veterans, said he never saw greater courage than Lewis and the marchers showed that day, March 7, 1965.
"There must be no forgotten places in America, whether they have been ignored for long years by the sins of indifference and injustice, or have been left behind as the world grew smaller and more economically interdependent," McCain said outside the St. James Hotel, a few hundred yards from the historic bridge.
"In America, we have always believed that if the day was a disappointment, we would win tomorrow. That's what John Lewis believed when he marched across this bridge," McCain said.
In a statement, Lewis said he was grateful to McCain for recognizing the march.
"These seminal events cut to the core of American democracy," Lewis said. "Their significance to all Americans is much bigger, much larger and much more profound than partisan politics."
McCain and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said that the economy in the region was beginning to turn around but that it remained desperately poor, which was why McCain chose it for his "It's Time for Action" tour.
The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, McCain is still trying to fend off criticism that he has been indifferent to the housing crisis and the market upheaval it spawned.
Last month, he said he opposed aggressive government intervention. Since then, however, he has proposed aid for struggling homeowners and a summer holiday from federal gas taxes.
From Selma, McCain went to the town of Gee's Bend, visiting a quilt-making collective run by generations of black women known for their intricate and bold designs. He bought three of the larger quilts, which carried price tags of up to $2,500.
They greeted him with choruses of "Do Lord" and other gospel hymns, holding his hands and hugging him, and they rode with him across the Alabama River to Camden on a ferry that began service in 2006, 44 years after county leaders shut down the ferry to keep black residents from crossing to the county seat to push for civil rights.
"I thank the Lord for McCain coming here," said quilter Mary Lee Bendolph. But she symbolized the challenge facing him: Bendolph said she liked Obama best.
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