In First Lady Michelle Obama?s 30-minute inspiring commencement address to graduating seniors on Saturday at the historically black Tuskegee University, she spoke not just about achieving a bright future. She spoke of the rich cultural history of Tuskegee University and she shared her experiences ? both good and bad ? of being the first African American first lady of the United States of America.
Below are a few excerpts of her speech.
On race and being the first African-American first lady:
“As potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations — conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was I too loud, or too angry, or too emasculating? Or was I too soft, too much of a mom, not enough of a career woman? Then there was the first time I was on a magazine cover — it was a cartoon drawing of me with a huge Afro and machine gun. Now, yeah, it was satire, but if I’m really being honest, it knocked me back a bit. It made me wonder, just how are people seeing me.”
On shaping the future:
??the road ahead is not going to be easy.? It never is, especially for folks like you and me.? Because while we?ve come so far, the truth is that those age-old problems are stubborn and they haven?t fully gone away.? So there will be times, just like for those Airmen, when you feel like folks look right past you, or they see just a fraction of who you really are.?
?The world won?t always see you in those caps and gowns.? They won?t know how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed to make it to this day — the countless hours you spent studying to get this diploma, the multiple jobs you worked to pay for school, the times you had to drive home and take care of your grandma, the evenings you gave up to volunteer at a food bank or organize a campus fundraiser.? They don’t know that part of you.?
?I want you all to stay true to the most real, most sincere, most authentic parts of yourselves.? I want you to ask those basic questions:? Who do you want to be?? What inspires you?? How do you want to give back?? And then I want you to take a deep breath and trust yourselves to chart your own course and make your mark on the world.?Maybe it feels like you?re supposed to go to law school — but what you really want to do is to teach little kids.? Maybe your parents are expecting you to come back home after you graduate — but you?re feeling a pull to travel the world.? I want you to listen to those thoughts.? I want you to act with both your mind, but also your heart.? And no matter what path you choose, I want you to make sure it?s you choosing it, and not someone else.? (Applause.) ?
On African American history and the legacy of Tuskegee University:
Whether you played sports yourself, or sang in the choir, or played in the band, or joined a fraternity or sorority — after today, all of you will take your spot in the long line of men and women who have come here and distinguished themselves and this university.
You will follow alums like many of your parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles — leaders like Robert Robinson Taylor, a groundbreaking architect and administrator here who was recently honored on a postage stamp.? (Applause.)? You will follow heroes like Dr. Boynton Robinson — (applause) — who survived the billy clubs and the tear gas of Bloody Sunday in Selma.? The story of Tuskegee is full of stories like theirs — men and women who came to this city, seized their own futures, and wound up shaping the arc of history for African Americans and all Americans.
And I?d like to begin today by reflecting on that history — starting back at the time when the Army chose Tuskegee as the site of its airfield and flight school for black pilots.? (Applause.) ?
Back then, black soldiers faced all kinds of obstacles.? There were the so-called scientific studies that said that black men?s brains were smaller than white men?s.? Official Army reports stated that black soldiers were ?childlike,? ?shiftless,? ?unmoral and untruthful,? and as one quote stated, ?if fed, loyal and compliant.?
So while the Airmen selected for this program were actually highly educated — many already had college degrees and pilots licenses — they were presumed to be inferior.? During training, they were often assigned to menial tasks like housekeeping or landscaping.? Many suffered verbal abuse at the hands of their instructors.? When they ventured off base, the white sheriff here in town called them ?boy? and ticketed them for the most minor offenses.? And when they finally deployed overseas, white soldiers often wouldn?t even return their salutes.
Just think about what that must have been like for those young men.? Here they were, trained to operate some of the most complicated, high-tech machines of their day — flying at hundreds of miles an hour, with the tips of their wings just six inches apart.? Yet when they hit the ground, folks treated them like they were nobody — as if their very existence meant nothing.
