Michelle Obama encouraged the graduates of Bowie State University on Friday morning to live up to the legacy of their university’s founders and the leaders of the civil rights movement by promoting the importance of education in the black community.
“Just think about this for a moment — for generations, in many parts of this country, it was illegal for black people to get an education,” Obama told the predominantly black crowd, referring to the period in which Bowie State was founded. “Slaves caught reading or writing could be beaten within an inch of their lives.”
The creation of the small school that eventually became Bowie State University was an “eloquent act of defiance,” she told the crowd of about 600 graduates and several thousand of their supporters at the Comcast Center in College Park.
Obama encouraged the students to keep a hunger to learn, quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said education “means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.”
The first lady received thunderous applause from several thousand people attending the ceremony in a state that voted overwhelmingly for her husband. It was an intensely friendly and excited crowd — with shouts of congratulations to individual graduates from the crowd, along with calls of “Michelle! We love you!” and a standing ovation that began before she spoke a word.
In the second of three commencement addresses the first lady will give this month, she also called on the graduates to push other African Americans to pursue higher education.
Too often, she said, young African Americans “can’t be bothered.”
“Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they’re fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper,” she said.
“Please reject the slander that says a black child with a book is trying to act white,” Obama said. “In short, be an example of excellence for the next generation.”
BSU awarded Michelle Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School, with an honorary doctorate of laws. It also recognized Valerie Simpson and her late husband Nickolas Ashford, who made up the songwriting team known as Ashford & Simpson, giving Simpson an honorary doctorate of humane letters.
Obama’s 21-minute address did not mention the political or policy issues that are at the forefront of her husband’s administration. She stuck to the historical arc of African Americans in the nation and the need to increase the number who graduate from high school and college.
Senior Ariel Williams-Edwards of Baltimore was one of two students whom Obama mentioned from the dais as examples of beating the odds. Williams-Edwards is an honors student who achieved despite family challenges, including a parent who struggled with substance abuse.
“She’s such a positive figure,” said Williams-Edwards, who described herself as overwhelmed at being singled out by Obama. “She stressed for blacks how important learning is and how young individuals need to stay focused. It was a significant message.”
President Obama has spoken at Bowie State twice — once as a candidate, according to university spokeswoman Damita Chambers. But it was the first time a sitting first lady has given a commencement speech here.
The occasion also marked the first time Bowie State has held its graduation ceremony away from the historically black university’s campus. Some of the school’s alumni had argued against the move to the Comcast Center on the campus of the University in Maryland in College Park because of the historical relationship between the universities, the school’s student newspaper reported. Black students were once barred from the flagship institution.
The president and first lady have spoken at several historically black colleges and universities during their time in the White House. In years past, Michelle Obama delivered commencement speeches at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Spelman College and North Carolina A&T. Her husband will speak at the Morehouse College graduation ceremony this month
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