- Obama Felicitates students of Black Hampton University on their Graduation
- Posted By:
- Karen W.
- Posted On:
- 11-May-2010
-
President Barack Obama, speaking to graduates at traditionally black Hampton University, said that it is the duty of all Americans to provide each child with the best kind of learning, making them highly independent in a financial system for which, a high school certificate is no longer sufficient.
He also told them that they have an additional responsibility of setting examples and being life form role models and advisors in their communities.
Dressed in a blue gown, Obama remembered the university's modest opening in September 1861 as a school for runaway slaves who looked for protection after escaping from close by farms, in the South. Obama supposed that originators accepted the fact that with the right kind of education, hurdles such as variations will no longer be a major challenge.
"They acknowledged that 'education means liberation.' They recognized that edification is how America and its citizens might complete our pledge," said Obama, the first black U.S. president.
Obama noted that Hampton's students are leaving school even as the economy recoils from its nastiest decline ever since 1930s, and with the U.S. at conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama believed education can aid them effectively handle the challenges of a 21st century economy.
During most part of the previous century, a high school qualification "was a label to a hard middle-class life," he said.
"The fine reality is, every single one are in front of the arc," he told the graduates. However it is a sad fact that there are many others, with dubious Hispanic and black facts that are not ready are easily outperformed by their white colleagues in the U.S. and around the earth.
"Every one of us has an important task, as Americans, to modify and to offer all children in this state an education that will provide them with great opportunities in our tough economic situation. That is our commitment as a nation," said the president.
The sense of liability, self-esteem and the "built-in aptitude of brilliance has made it possible for all of you to be here at the moment," he said.
Obama's communication was in a sequence followed by top governing officials at traditionally black colleges and universities this time. Eleven of the states other than 100 "HBCUs" will have a managing officer talk at graduation.
First lady Michelle Obama was the first presenter on Saturday at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which started as the only state-supported organization of higher edification for blacks in Arkansas.
Obama’s superior advice-giver Valerie Jarrett was scheduled to talk at Morgan State University's inauguration ceremony on May 15, followed by Defence Secretary Robert Gates at More house College and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice at Spellman College, together on May 16.
Previously this year, Obama named Hampton University President William R. Harvey to be the chairman of a presidential counselling panel on historical black colleges and universities.
Obama also received an honorary doctor of law degree. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he made a clever remark that the voluntary degree "is much less pricey than my previous law degree."