President Barack Obama Delivers Morehouse Commencement Address

today we hold our commencement exercises on the grounds of a place deeply rooted deeply enriched by events and symbols of enduring legacies during this calendar year we also celebrate a number of events that resonate significantly with our commencement exercises this morning the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address the 100th anniversary of the death of the founder of Morehouse College William Jefferson Wright white the 100th anniversary of the design of the seal and the renaming of the college from Atlanta Baptist College to Morehouse College in the name of Henry lime and Morehouse originator of the theory of the talented tenth the 50th anniversary of dr. King's infamous letter from a Birmingham jail the 50th anniversary of the renowned march on Washington and dr. King's I have a dream speech and the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Martin Luther King jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College today on this proud occasion we add another significant event to this list of noble anniversaries to be celebrated in the years to come the presence of our honourable speaker for the morning ladies and gentlemen the President of the United States hello morons well thank you everybody please be seated I love you back that is why I'm here I have to say that it is one of the great honors of my life to be able to address this gathering here today I want to thank dr. Wilson for his outstanding leadership and the board of trustees we have congressman Cedric Richmond and Sanford Bishop both proud alumni of this school as well as congressman Hank Johnson and one of my dear friends and a great inspiration to us all the great John Lewis is here we have your outstanding mayor mr. Kasim Reed in the house to all the members of the Morehouse family and most of all congratulations to this distinguished group of Morehouse men the class of 2013 I have to say that it's a little hard to follow knock dr. Wilson but a skinny guy with a funny name Betsy huh - della he's going to be doing something I also have to say that you all are going to get wet and I'd be out there with you if I could but Secret Service gets nervous so I'm gonna have to stay here dry but know that I'm there with you in spirit some of you are graduating summa laude some of you are graduating magna laude I know some of you are just graduating Thank You Lauder and that's appropriate because this is Sunday I see some moms and grandmas here aunts in their Sunday best although they aren't upset about their hair getting messed up Michelle would not be sitting in the ring she has taught me about her I want to get right into all of it the parents the grandparents the brothers and sisters the family and friends who supported these young men in so many ways this is your day as well just think about it your sons your brothers your nephews they've spent the last four years far from home and close to Spelman and yet they are still here today so you've done something right graduates give a big round of applause to your family for everything that they've done for you I know that some of you had to wait in long lines to get in today's ceremony and I would apologize but it did not have anything to do with security those graduates just want you to know what it's like to register for classes here and this time of year brings a different kind of stress every senior stopping by Gloucester Hall over the past week making sure your name was actually on the list of students who met on the graduation if it wasn't on the list you had to figure out what was it that library book you lent to that trifling roommate who didn't return it was it dr. Johnson's policy class did you get enough brown form credits on that last point I'm going to exercise my power as president to declare this speech sufficient ground form credits for any otherwise eligible student to graduate that is my graduation hitting you you have a special dispensation that graduates I am humbled to stand here with all of you as an honorary Morehouse man I finally mate and as I knew I mindful of an old saying you can always tell the Morehouse man but you can't tell him much and that makes my task a little more difficult I suppose but but I think it also reflects the sense of pride that's always been part of this school's tradition Benjamin Mays who served as the president of Morehouse for almost 30 years understood that tradition better than anybody he said and I quote it will not be sufficient for Morris College for any College for that matter to produce clever graduates but rather honest men men who can be trusted in public and private life men were sensitive to the wrongs the sufferings and the injustice --is of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting those ills it was that mission not just to educate men but to cultivate good men strong men upright men that brought community leaders together just two years after the end of the Civil War they assembled a list of 37 men free blacks and freed slaves who would make up the first prospective class of what later became Morehouse College most of those first students had a desire to become teachers and preachers to better themselves so they could help others do the same the century and a half later times has changed but the Morehouse mystique still in doors some of you probably came here from communities where everybody looked like you others may have come here in search of a community and I suspect that some of you probably felt a little bit of culture shock first time you came together as a class in King's chapel all of a sudden you weren't the only high school sports captain you weren't the only student council president you were suddenly in a group of high achievers and that men you were expected to do something more and that's the unique sense of purpose that this place is always infused the conviction that this is a training ground not only for individual success but for leadership that can change the world dr. King was just 15 years old when he enrolled here at Morehouse he was none known under sized unassuming young freshman who lived at home with his parents I think it's fair to say he wasn't the coolest kid on campus for the suits he wore his classmates called him tweed but his education and Morehouse helped to Ford the intellect the discipline the compassion the soul force that would transform America it was here that he was introduced to the writings of Gandhi and Thoreau and the theory of civil disobedience it was here that professors encouraged him to look past the world as it was and fight for the world as it should be and it was here in Morehouse as dr. cake later wrote where I realized that nobody was afraid not even of some bad weather I had it on that part I know it's wet out there but dr. Wilson told me y'all had a choice and decided to do it out here anyway that's that's a Morehouse man topic now think about it for a black man in the forties and the fifties the threat of violence the constant humiliations large and small the uncertainty that you could support a family the gnawing doubts born of the Jim Crow culture that told you every day that somehow you were inferior the temptation to shrink from the world to accept your place to avoid risks to be afraid that temptation was necessarily strong and yet here under the tutelage of men like dr. Mayes young Martin learned to be unafraid and he in turn taught others to me unafraid and over time he taught a nation to being afraid and over the last 50 years thanks to the moral force of dr. King and a Moses generation that overcame their fear and their cynicism and their despair barriers have come tumbling down the new doors of opportunity of swamp and laws and hearts and minds have been changed to the point where someone who looks just like you it somehow come to serve as president of these United States so there's three we share should give you hope the future we share should give you hope you're graduating into an improving job market you're living at a time when advances in telic technology and communication put the world at your fingertips your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any generation of african-americans that came before but that doesn't mean we don't have work because if we're honest with ourselves we know that too few of our brothers have the opportunities that you've had here at Morehouse in troubled neighborhoods all across this country many of them heavily african-american - fewer of our citizens have role models to guide them communities just a couple of miles from my house in Chicago community is just a couple of miles from here there are places where jobs are still too scarce and wages are still too low where schools are underfunded and violence is pervasive where too many of our young men spend their youth up behind a desk in the classroom but hanging out on the streets or brooding behind a jail cell my job as president is to advocate for policies that generate more opportunity for everybody policies that strengthen the middle class and give more people the chance to climb their way into the middle class policies that create more good job and reduce poverty and educate more children and give more families the security of health care and protect more of our children from the horrors of gun violence that's my job those are matters of public policy and it is important for all of us black white and brown to advocate for in America where everybody's had a fair shot in letting us up that was a few but along with collective responsibilities we have individual responsibilities there are some things as black men we can only do for ourselves there are some things as Morehouse men that you are obliged to do for those still left behind as Morehouse men you now wield something even more powerful than the Diploma you're about to collect and that's the power of your example so what I ask of you today is the same thing I ask of every graduating class I address use that power for something larger than yourself live up to President maizes challenge be sensitive to the wrongs the sufferings and the injustice of society and be willing to accept responsibility for correcting those ills I know that some of you came to Morehouse from communities where life was about keeping your head down and looking out for yourself maybe you feel like you escaped and now you can take your degree and get that fancy job in the nice house the nice car and never looked back and don't get me wrong with all those student loans you've had to take out I know you've got to earn some money with your doors open to you that your parents and grandparents could not even imagine no one expects you to take a vow of poverty but I will say it betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do so yes go get that law degree but but if you do ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and the powerful or if you can also find some time to defend the powerless sure go get your MBA or start that business we need black businesses out there but ask yourselves what broader purpose your business might serve in putting people back to work or transforming a neighborhood the most successful CEOs I know didn't start out intent just on making money rather they had a vision of how their product or service would change things and the money follow some of you may be headed to medical school to become doctors but make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it too for generations certain groups in this country especially African Americans have been desperate in need of access to quality affordable health care and as the society we're finally beginning to change that those of you who are under age 26 are you had the option to stay on your parents health care plan but all of you are heading into an economy where many young people expect not only to have multiple jobs but multiple careers so starting October 1st because of the Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare you'll be able to shop for a quality affordable plan that's yours and travels with you a plan that will ensure not only your help but your dreams if you are sick or go get an accident but we're going to need some doctors to make sure it works too we've got to make sure everybody has been helped in this country it's not just good for you it's good for this country so you're gonna have to spread the word to your fellow young people which brings me to the second point just as Morehouse's taught you'd expect more of yourselves inspire those who look up to you to expect more of themselves we know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices and I have to say growing up I made quite a few myself sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing but one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is there's no longer any room for excuses I understand there's a common fraternity Creed here at Morehouse excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness but we've got no time for excuses not because the bitter legacy of slavery and segregation have banished entirely they have not not because racism and discrimination no longer exists we know those are still out there it's just that in today's hyper-connected hyper competitive world with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did all of them entering the global workforce alongside you nobody is going to give you anything that you have not earned nobody cares how tough your upbringing was nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination and moreover you have to remember that whatever you've gone through it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured and they overcame them and if they overcame them you can overcome up to you now hail from a lineage and legacy of immeasurably strong men men who bore tremendous burdens and still laid the stones for the path on which we now walk you wear the mantle of Frederick Douglass and Booker T Washington and Ralph Bunche and Langston Hughes and George Washington Carver and Ralph Abernathy and Thurgood Marshall and yes dr. Martin Luther King jr. these men were many things to many people and they knew full well to roll the racism played in their lives but when it came to their own accomplishments and sense of purpose they had no time for excuses every one of you have a grandma or an uncle or a parent who's told you that at some point in life as an african-american you have to work twice as hard as anyone else if you want to get by I think President Mays put it even better he said whatever you do strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead and no man yet to be born can do it any better and I promise you what was needed in dr. Mayes time that spirit of excellence and hard work and dedication and no excuses is needed now more than ever if you think you can just get over in this economy just because you have a Morehouse degree you're in for a rude awakening but if you stay hungry if you keep hustling if you keep on your grind and get other folks to do the same nobody can stop you and when I talk about pursuing excellence and setting an example I'm not just talking about in your professional life one of today's graduates Frederick Andersen where's Frederick Frederick right here I want I want I know it's raining but I'm going to tell about Frederick Frederick started his college career in Ohio only to find out that his high school sweetheart back in Georgia was pregnant so he came back and rolled and Morehouse to be closer to her pretty soon helping raise a newborn and working night shifts became too much so he started taking business classes at a Technical College instead doing everything from drooling newspapers to buffing Hospital floors to support his family and then he rolled at Morehouse a second time but even with a job he couldn't keep up with the cost of tuition so after getting his degree from that technical school this father of three decided to come back to Morehouse for a third time as Frederick says God has a plan for my life and he's not done with me yet and today Frederick is a family man and a working man and a Morehouse man and that's what I'm asking all of you to do keep setting an example for what it means to be a man be the best husband to your wife or your boyfriend or your partner be the best father you can be to your children because nothing's more important I was raised by a heroic single mom wonderful grandparents made incredible sacrifices for me and I know there are moms and grandparents here today who did the same thing for all of you but I sure wish I had had a father who was not only present but involved didn't know my dad and so my whole life I've tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father was not for my mother and me I want to break that cycle where father's not at home where fathers not helping to raise that son or daughter I want to be a better father a better husband a better man it's hard work that demands your constant attention and frequent sacrifice and I promise you Michelle will tell you I'm not perfect Joe she's got a long list of my imperfections even now I'm still practicing I'm still learning still getting corrected in terms of how to be a fine husband and a good father but I will tell you this everything else is unfulfilled if we fail at family if we fail at that responsibility I know that when I am on my deathbed someday I will not be thinking about any particular legislation I pass I will not be thinking about a policy I promote it I will not be thinking about the speech I gave I will not be thinking about the Nobel Prize I received I will be thinking about that walk I took with my daughter's I'll be thinking about a lazy afternoon with my wife I'll be thinking about sitting around the dinner table and seeing them happy and healthy and knowing that they were loved and I'll be thinking about whether I did right by all of that so be a good role model set a good example for that young brother coming up if you know somebody who's not on point go back and bring that brother alone those who have been left behind who haven't had the same opportunities we have they need to hear from you you've got to be engaged on the barbershop on the basketball court at church spent time and energy and presence too to give people opportunities and a chance pull them up expose them support their dreams don't put them down we've got to teach them just like what we have to learn what it means to be a man to serve your city like Maynard Jackson to shape the culture like Spike Lee to be like Chester Davenport one of the first people to integrate the University of Georgia law school when he got there nobody would sit next to him in class but Chester didn't mind later on he said it was the right thing for me to do someone needed to be the first and today Chester is here celebrating his 50th reunion where's Chester Davenport he's here so if you've had role models fathers brothers like that thank them today and if you haven't commit yourself to being that man for somebody else and finally as you do these things do them not just for yourself but don't even do them just for the african-american community I want you to set your sights higher you know the turn of the last century w EBD boy spoke about the talented tenth a class of highly educated socially conscious leaders in the black community but it's not just the african-american community that needs you the country needs you the world needs you as Morehouse men many of you know what it's like to be an outsider know what it's like to be marginalized know what it's like to feel the string of sting of discrimination and that's an experience that a lot of Americans share Hispanic Americans know that feeling when somebody asked them where they come from or tell them to go back gay and lesbian Americans feel it when a stranger passes judgment them on their parenting skills or the love that they share Muslim Americans feel it when they're stared at with suspicion because of their faith any woman who knows the injustice of earning less pay for doing the same work she knows what it's like to be on the outside looking in so your experiences give you special insight that today's leaders need if you tap into that experience it should endow you with empathy the understanding what it's like to walk in somebody else's shoes to see through their eyes to know what it is like when you're not born on third base thinking you hit a triple it should give you the ability to connect it should give you a sense of compassion and what it means to overcome barriers and I will tell you class of 2013 whatever success I have achieved whatever positions of leadership I have held have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy the special obligation I felt as a black man like you to help those who need it most people who didn't have the opportunities that I had because there but for the grace of God go on I might have been in their shoes I might have been in prison I might have been unemployed I might not have been able to support a family and that motivates me since ups it's up to you to widen your circle of concern to care about justice for everybody white black and brown everybody not just in your own community but all across this country and around the world to make sure everyone has a voice and everybody gets the seat at the table that everybody no matter what you look like or where you come from what your last name is word it doesn't matter everybody gets a chance to walk through those doors of opportunity if they are willing to work hard enough when Leland Shelton was four years old where's Lila set up Lena when Lila and she'll was four years old Social Services took him away from his mama put him in the care of his grandparents by age 14 he was in the foster care system three years after that leland enrolled in Morehouse and today he is graduating Phi Beta Kappa on his way to Harvard Law School but he's not subbing there as a member of the national foster care youth and alumni policy Council he plans to use his law degree to make sure kids like him don't fall through the cracks anyone matter of whether they're black kids or brown kids or white kids or Native American kids because he'll understand what they're going through and he'll be fighting for them he'll be on the inner corner that's leadership that's a Morehouse man right there that's what we've come to expect from you Morehouse a legacy of leaders not just in our black community foot but for the entire American community to recognize the burdens you carry with you but to resist the temptation to use them as excuses to transform the way we think about manhood and set higher standards for ourselves and for others to be successful but also to understand that each of us has responsibilities not just to ourselves but to one another and to future generations men who refuse to be afraid men who refuse to be afraid members of the class of 2013 you are heirs to a great legacy you have within you that same courage and that same strength the same resolve is the men who came before you that's what being a Morehouse man is all about that's what being an American is all about success may not come quickly or easily but if you strive to do what's right if you work harder and dream bigger if you set an example in your own lives and do your part to help meet the challenges of our times then I'm confident together we will continue the never-ending task of perfecting our union congratulations class of 2013 god bless you god bless Morehouse and god bless the United States of America let's say the President of the United States please be seated we are going to accelerate things now I'm sure you can understand why there are two things we must do we must give the President of the United States his degree and we must give this class your degrees we're going to go to those right now I'm going to call on Provost shift on to that end President Wilson I have the distinct honor to present to you for control of the degree doctors Doctor of Laws honoris causa Barack Hussein Obama president of the United States mr. president will you please come forward the mr. president in your many roles of leadership and service whether as Attorney for human and civil rights community organizer leader of voter registration drives teacher author state senator Nobel Peace Prize winner or as president of the United States of America you have demonstrated unyielding and uncompromising efforts to achieve the highest order of service with a philosophical verb akin to that of the greatest statesman of ages past the breadth and depth of your creative vision the interplay of your adroit and temperate persuasive skills your modeling of exemplary family engagement as a father and husband and the integrity and commitment of your munificent compassion and courageous leadership that boldly encouraged a more diverse and a more tolerant society continue to enrich immensely the life of this nation and the world moreover present and future generations can look to your many examples of selfless service seen early on when you turn down a prestigious judicial clerkship and instead practice civil rights law in Chicago representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working continuously on voting rights legislation in particular the over 500 graduates who sit before you this morning recognize your life and work and adherence to pristine values that are not unlike those that embody the spirit of Morehouse College and the principles of servant leadership that hold our students to the highest standards for excellence and achievement yet in addition to your many tangible achievements you still find the time to comfort a weeping child in the wake of disaster to hold the hand of an elderly woman who has lost her entire family to reassure a jobless man that help is on the way and to trumpet messages of hope as you press for a legislation that will ultimately restore dignity and provide a better of life for those in need mr. president I am personally honored to have work with you and to have personally witnessed the impact of your character and leadership you are indeed the education president having elevated the importance of access to quality affordable education for all Americans as essential and integral to a to a strong and resilient nation please know that here on this campus we are trying to make more house that strong institution that we envision together at the White House therefore in the profound honor of your presence and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Board of Trustees of Morehouse College I'm pleased to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa with all the rights honors privileges to that degree pertaining throughout the world in testimony thereof I'm pleased to present you the Diploma officially signed and bearing the seal of the corporation and it is my pleasure sir to welcome you to the distinguished body of Morehouse College alumni and to call you a true Morehouse man you you

Channel: Morehouse College

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Length: 39min 55sec (2395 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2013