(AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
First lady Michelle Obama spoke at commencement exercises at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in Pine Bluff, Ark., May 8, 2010.
The first lady gave an impassioned speech to 270 graduates that referenced the legacy of their historically black school, which opened in 1873 with seven students, most of whom could barely read. She told graduates Saturday to prepare to overcome adversity, building on Martin Luther King Jr. 's 1958 commencement address at the same university, when he told students to summon their courage to fight segregation.
Obama, a product of Chicago public schools who went on to attain degrees from Princeton and Harvard, said she encountered people in her youth who doubted she could succeed.
"Even today ... I know that for some of you this journey has not been easy," Obama said. "Like me, you wanted something more, right? Just like those (original) seven students."
She singled out Quinna Childress of Newport, who graduated Saturday with a 3.935 grade-point average in biology and plans to attend medical school. Childress was homeless at age 16, a high school student living out of a car who worked nights and weekends as a nurse's aide. Ms. Obama said that those struggles would make Childress an extraordinary physician and add depth to her sense of compassion.
Dr. King's Arkansas speech came a year after federal troops protected nine black students attending all-white Little Rock Central High School. Michelle Obama's speech came more than a year after the university's 260-piece band marched in the inaugural parade for her husband, the nation's first black president.
Source: Huffington Post
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