By Jueseppi B.
Remarks by the First Lady at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School Commencement
First Lady Michelle Obama Delivers Commencement Address at MLK, JR. Magnet High School Commencement
May 18, 2013 | 22:54 | Public Domain
The First Lady, Michelle Obama, delivers the commencement address to graduates of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Academic Magnet High School for Health Sciences and Engineering at Historic Pearl High in Nashville, TN on May 18 at 1:00 PM. The school serves approximately 1,200 students in grades 7 through 12 with a curriculum that emphasizes mathematics and science. Housed in the historic Pearl High School building, MLK is consistently ranked among the best public schools in the nation for its academic rigor and high graduation rate.
May 19, 2013
Prepared text for President Obama’s speech at Morehouse
President Obama came to Morehouse College, the alma mater of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on Sunday to tell graduates, 50 years after Dr. King’s landmark “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, that “laws, hearts and minds have been changed to the point where someone who looks like you can serve as president of the United States.”
The president tied Dr. King’s journey to his own, speaking in forthright and strikingly personal terms about his struggles as a young man with an absent father, a “heroic single mother,” supportive grandparents and the psychological burdens of being black in America.
“We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices,” Mr. Obama said. “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.”
“But one of the things you’ve learned over the last four years is that there’s no longer any room for excuses,” the president told the 500 or so graduates, who greeted him enthusiastically.
“Along with collective responsibilities, we have individual responsibilities,” Mr. Obama added. “There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves.”
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Anre Washington
Betesegaw Tadele
Nathaniel Goulbourne
Reginald Sharpe
Georgia Father and Son Graduate Together from Morehouse College
Published on May 19, 2013
Two men named Dorian Joyner graduated on Sunday from Morehouse College in Georgia. They are a father and son who have supported each other as classmates and family.
Dorian Joyner Sr., 46, was a student at Atlanta’s Morehouse College in 1988 when he decided to take some time off from school to pursue a career opportunity in computers. Over the next 20 years, he worked as a senior analyst in data and finance for several major corporations, including a large law firm.
After growing more and more interested in law, he went back to school in 2006 to get an associate’s degree in paralegal studies to make sure he really loved law before investing time and money in law school.
In 2010, Joyner Sr. approached his son to tell him about his decision to go back to Morehouse.
“I just told him to repeat the question one more time and repeat the answer one more time because I thought I heard a different answer,” Dorian Joyner Jr., 23, told ABCNews.com with a laugh. “I thought he was coming to visit friends. He was coming back as a student.”
The two were never in the same class, but shared some of the same teachers. Joyner Sr. chuckled as he recalled teachers doing a double-take when they saw that they had a Dorian Joyner in their class when they had previously taught one of a different age.
“When we saw each other, we’d greet each other, talk to each other and see how the other was doing in classes,” Joyner Jr. said. “Sometimes, people would walk past us when we were talking and say, ‘Wow, you two look just alike.’”
“The only thing he doesn’t do is say, ‘Dad,’ on campus. He’ll call me Dorian,” Joyner Sr. said.
Joyner Sr. said that on campus, he fit in by dressing like the other guys and carrying his backpack. He said that most students kept their distance from “the old guy” for the first few months of each semester until after the first group project, when he realized how he excelled in presentations from all of his work experience. Then, they flocked to be in his group.
Their roles were reversed, with Joyner Jr. keeping a watchful eye on his father at school.
“He acts like he’s my father on campus,” Joyner Sr. said. “He’ll say, ‘Did you get your class? Did you register?’ He makes sure to check up on everything.”
On Sunday, both donned caps and gowns to graduate with a mutual pride in each other.
“I’m definitely proud of him,” Joyner Jr. said. “I’m proud of him as a man to go back and fulfill a degree. A lot of people his age have a family, have a career and really don’t have the time or finance to go back to school. The fact that he took the opportunity to find financing and time to go back to school while maintaining a social life and a family is very astounding. That’s hard to do.”
“It’s just going to be an exciting time all around,” Joyner Sr. said. “It makes me proud. I watched him struggle through school and he’s my firstborn, so it really makes me proud.”
President Obama gave the commencement speech at Morehouse’s graduation ceremony.
The school is one of the country’s leading historical black colleges and universities. Alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, among others.
Dorian Joyner, Sr. and Dorian Joyner, Jr.
President Obama’s Morehouse College Commencement Speech – Part I
Published on May 19, 2013
ATLANTA – President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address during the 129th commencement exercises at Morehouse College on Sunday.
President Obama’s Morehouse College Commencement Speech – Part II
Published on May 19, 2013
ATLANTA – President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address during the 129th commencement exercises at Morehouse College on Sunday.
President Obama’s Morehouse College Commencement Speech – Part III
Published on May 19, 2013
ATLANTA – President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address during the 129th commencement exercises at Morehouse College on Sunday.
Rain poured down on the crowd throughout the ceremony, forcing many in attendance to don plastic ponchos, and thunder rang out and lightning flickered in the sky as Obama wound down his speech. The president stayed dry on stage but sympathized with the rain-soaked graduates and attendees, even noting that his wife, Michelle Obama, would not be pleased with the rainy day because of what it would do to her famous hair.
“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 going to have to stay here dry, but know that I’m there with you in spirit,” he said. “Michelle would not be sitting in the rain. She has taught me about hair.”
President Barack Obama, in a soaring commencement address on work, sacrifice and opportunity, told graduates of Morehouse College Sunday to seize the power of their example as black men graduating from college and use it to improve people’s lives.
Noting the Atlanta school’s mission to cultivate, not just educate, good men, Obama said graduates should not be so eager to join the chase for wealth and material things, but instead should remember where they came from and not “take your degree and get a fancy job and nice house and nice car and never look back.”
“So yes, go get that law degree. But if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and powerful, or if you can also find time to defend the powerless,” Obama declared. “Sure, go get your MBA, or start that business, we need black businesses out there. But ask yourself what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood.”
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Vice President President Joe Biden reads letters from children about reducing gun violence, in his Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. May 15, 2013. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)
Jueseppi B.
