President Barack Obama’s Commencement Speech for Morehouse University
Abridged, May 2013
L = Logos
E=Ethos
P= Pathos
….Now, graduates, I am humbled to stand here with all of you as an honorary Morehouse Man. I finally made
it. And as I do, I’m mindful of an old saying: “You can always tell a Morehouse Man — but you can’t tell him
much.” And that makes my task a little more difficult, I suppose. 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 Morehouse 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 who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices 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…
Dr. King was just 15 years old when he enrolled here at Morehouse. He was an unknown, undersized,
unassuming young freshman who lived at home with his parents. And 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 at
Morehouse helped to forge 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, at Morehouse, as Dr. King later wrote, where “I
realized that nobody — was afraid.”
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.” Well, we’ve got no time for excuses. Not
because the bitter legacy of slavery and segregation has vanished entirely; they have not. Not because racism
and discrimination no longer exist; we know those are still out there. It’s just that in today’s hyper connected,
hypercompetitive 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
them, too.
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
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/05/20/transcript-obamas-commencement-speech-at-morehouse-college/
President Barack Obama’s Commencement Speech for Morehouse University
Abridged, May 2013
people. And they knew full well the role that racism played in their lives. But when it came to their own
accomplishments and sense of purpose, they had no time for excuses…..
I was raised by a heroic single mom, wonderful grandparents — made incredible sacrifices for me. And I know
there is 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.
I know that when I am on my deathbed someday, I will not be thinking about any particular legislation I
passed; I will not be thinking about a policy I promoted; I will not be thinking about the speech I gave, I will
not be thinking the Nobel Prize I received. I will be thinking about that walk I took with my daughters. 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 them….
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
I — 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.
So 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 also across this country and around the world. To
make sure everyone has a voice, and everybody gets a seat at the table; that everybody, no matter what you
look like or where you come from, what your last name is — it doesn’t matter, everybody gets a chance to
walk through those doors of opportunity if they are willing to work hard enough.
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 time, then
I’m confident that, 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
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/05/20/transcript-obamas-commencement-speech-at-morehouse-college/