 Michelle Obama speaking to D.C. students at the White House (Photo: AP) While Barack Obama is busy trying to swiftly solve our nation's economy crisis, his wife and First Lady is doing her part for the kids.
Michelle Obama hosted a Black History Month celebration for nearly 200 6th and 7th grade students from D.C. schools in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday (February 18), which also featured a performance by Sweet Honey in the Rock, an award-winning female acappella ensemble.
After an introduction by the White House's longest serving employee, Chief Usher Admiral Rochon, Mrs. Obama spoke to the students about how hard work can take you anywhere you'd like, even to the White House like the President.
"Like Barack and I, the Admiral didn't rise to his position because of wealth or because he had a lot of material resources," she said. "See, we were all very much kids like you guys. We just figured out one day that our fate was in our own hands. We made decisions to listen to our parents and to our teachers, and to work very, very hard for everything in life. And then we worked harder any time anybody doubted us."
Michelle Obama then asked the students about the famous White House's history, garnering a surprised look when students answered "Yes" to this question:
"So many milestones in black history have touched this very house. Just to name a few, did you know that African-American slaves helped to build this house?"
She then began to share several other moments in black history with the students.
"Did you know that right upstairs in a bedroom called the Lincoln Bedroom, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that marked an important step forward in ending slavery? Did you know that happened right here?"
"Yes," the young students responded.
After discussing Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders, Mrs. Obama then asked whether they knew who lived in the White House today and why is making history.
"He is the first African American president of the United States," a girl from the audience answered.
The First Lady encouraged the students to visit the White House often, because she said it should be a place of "learning and for sharing new and different ideas, sharing new forms of art and culture, and history and different perspectives."
After she spoke, Sweet Honey in the Rock took the stage, singing songs like "Ballad of Harry T. Moore," a civil rights activist whose home was bombed; "When I Grow up"; and "Young and Positive"; before ending with "Civil Rights Medley/ Ella's Song."
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