Obama delivered a virtual commencement speech this afternoon for graduates of the 74 historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) across the United States, delivering a powerful message about systemic racism in America. Obama called on the 2020 class to be “bold” and have a “vision that isn’t clouded by cynicism or fear” and to collaborate with “allies in common cause.”
Addressing the 27,000 students of the HBCU and a national audience, Obama also took aim at the criminally inept trump administration — “More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”
The 2:00 p.m. ceremony started off with a two-hour live-streamed event called “Show Me Your Walk, HBCU Edition,” which included appearances from HBCU alumni, actors and actresses, NBA players and owners, corporate CEOs and artists. Sen. Kamala Harris, a Howard University grad, also made an appearance.
Obama‘s speech starts at the 1:46:50 mark in the video below -
Here is a video of just the speech -
The article at the Washington Post shown below has more coverage of the speech.
The second event, “Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020,” will take place at 8 p.m. EDT tonight. Obama will be joined by seniors from Chicago Public Schools and the Obama Youth Jobs Corps, all affiliated with the Obama Foundation. Hosted by the XQ Institute, the LeBron James Family Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the one-hour special will broadcast on all major TV networks. See the tweet below for links to online sources.
A preview of the prime-time special -
List of participants in tonight’s ceremony -
Here is tonight’s speech -
It will certainly be something I will watch tonight. I suspect so will you. Obama’s words carry weight and meaning; they will inspire a new generation of graduates and influence their thinking on how to make America a better nation for all. We need him to be engaged in this critical period of our history.
Republicans understand the power of Obama’s words and their recent attacks on him betray a sense of fear and anxiety. They know that the current occupant of the White House is incapable of giving a graduation speech, let alone an inspiring one and will probably be rage-tweeting again tonight. After all, he only loves the poorly educated.