Michelle Obama at Bowie State: Too many fantasize about being ‘a baller or a rapper’

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland  --  Michelle Obama encouraged the graduates of Bowie State University on Friday morning to live up to the legacy of their university’s founders and the leaders of the civil rights movement by promoting the importance of education in the black community.

“Just think about this for a moment — for generations, in many parts of this country, it was illegal for black people to get an education,” Obama told the predominantly black crowd, referring to the period in which Bowie State was founded. “Slaves caught reading or writing could be beaten within an inch of their lives.”

The creation of the small school that eventually became Bowie State University was an “eloquent act of defiance,” she told the crowd of about 600 graduates and several thousand of their supporters at the Comcast Center in College Park.

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Obama encouraged the students to keep a hunger to learn, quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said education “means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.”

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Michelle Obama Gets Honorary Degree, Gives Speech at Bowie State Graduation

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland  --  The first lady received an honorary degree from Bowie State University before speaking to about 600 graduates during their commencement Friday.

Michelle Obama received the Honorary Doctorate of Law during the ceremony. She then spoke to the students about their perseverance.

"We need to dig deep to find the grit and determination for students today like the first students of Bowie State," the first lady told the crowd. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of the sacrifices my parents made for me."

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker III tweeted Friday that the "2013 BSU grads will never forget [Michelle Obama's] words."

The event was held on at the Comcast Center at the University of Maryland in College Park to accommodate a crowd of more than 10,000.

When the first lady's appearance was first announced, some parents and professors were disappointed because ...

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VIDEO: Michelle Obama Bowie State University commencement address