F. C. C. Chair tom wheeler will be before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee this morning talking about the budget request and joining us is ajit pai. Well have live coverage in about half an hour here. Also live at 11 25 on cspan3, president obama will take part in a roundtable discussion on ways to address poverty in the u. S. Its part of a threeday catholic evangelical summit at georgetown university. Again, thats 11 25 a. M. Eastern. And also at 2 30 on cspan3, the Veterans Affairs committee will talk to deputy Veterans Affairs secretary sloan gibson. It will include representatives from several veterans interest groups. Thats on cspan3 at 2 30 eastern. This weekend the cspan cities tour partnered with comcast to learn about the history and literary life of Fort Lauderdale, florida. So this was really cultural tourism and so when they set up their villages along the way, along the trail sometimes only leaned to the buses would stop because heres the tourist attraction. The seminoles camping by the road. So when they came in to the Tourist Attractions they were getting food, a weekly allotment of food and they were also getting sometimes like sewing machines where coppenger would rent. And they also sometimes get fabric because it behooved the tourist attraction people to supply them with fabric so they were sitting there sewing and making things for a craft market. This is a little boys shirt. Belted shirt from the 1920s. This was an experimental time for patchwork and you can see that on the bottom this is not a design, lets say, thats made it down today. This is a little experimental design. The designs were bigger in the 1920s. Sometimes they werent used any longer than that particular decade. The thing about the devils triangle bermuda triangle, all things happened. It was a regular navigation mission, training mission. They would take off from the base and then flight 19s, they would go east out towards the bahamas. They would drop bombs on that and they would continue on another 70 miles or so and they were supposed to make a turn north and go 100something miles and make a turn back west towards Fort Lauderdale. They never came back. Later at night after they were sure they were out of fuel they sent out these big rescue planes and that plane disappeared. It had 13 men aboard. And the next day they had a fiveday search with hundreds of planes and ships and never found anything. Watch awful our events from Fort Lauderdale saturday at 5 30 eastern on book tv and sunday at 2 00 on American History tv on cspan3. First Lady Michelle obama gave the commencement address at Tuskegee University over the weekend. We took phone calls on this mornings washington journal. Well show you her comments now. This is under half an hour. [applause] mrs. Obama thank you all. Thank you so much. Lets let our graduates rest themselves. Youve worked hard for those seats. Well let me start by thanking president johnson for that very gracious introduction and for awarding me with this Honorary Degree from an extraordinary institution. I am proud to have this degree. I am proud. Thank you. Thank you so much. I want to recognize Major General williams congresswoman sewell, zachary colana, to all the trustees, the faculty, the staff here at Tuskegee University. Thank you, thank you so much for this warm welcome, this tremendous hospitality. Im so glad to be here. But [applause] mrs. Obama before i begin i just want to say my heart goes out to everyone who knew and loved eric marx jr. I understand he was such a talented young man a promising Aerospace Engineer who was well on his way to following in the steps of the task gee air men and eric was taken from as you far too soon and our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with his family, his friends and this entire community. [applause] mrs. Obama i also have to recognize the concert quire. Wow. You choir. Wow. You guys are good. Beautiful song. And i have to join in recognizing all the folks up in the stands, the parents siblings, friends so many others who have poured their love and support into these graduates every step of the way. Yeah, this is your day. Your day. Now, on this day before mothers day, i got to give a special shoutout to all the moms here. [cheers and applause] mrs. Obama yeah, moms. And i want you to consider this as a Public Service announcement for anyone who hasnt bought the flowers or the cards or the gift yet. All right. Im trying to cover you. [laughter] mrs. Obama but remember that one rule is keep mom happy. All right. And finally most of all, i want to congratulate the men and women of the Tuskegee University class of 2015 [cheers and applause] mrs. Obama t. U. I love that. We can do that all day. Im so proud of you all. And you look good. Well done. You all have come here from all across the country to study, to learn, maybe have a little fun along the way. From freshmen year at adams young hall to those latenight food runs to the coop. I did my research. To those mornings you woke up early to get a spot on the shed to watch the golden tigers play. Yeah. Ive been watching. At the white house we got all kinds of ways. And whether you played sports yourself or sang in the choir or played in the band, joined a fraternity or sore record, sorority, after today, you will take a long line in the spot of men and women who have came here and distinguished themselves for this university. Youll follow alums like many of your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, leaders like Robert Robinson taylor the groundbreaking architect and administrator here who was recently honored on a postage stamp. You will follow heros like dr. Boynton robinson who survived the tear gas of bloody sunday in selma. The story of tuskegee is full of stories like theirs. Men and women who came to this city seized their own futures and wound up shaping the arc of history for africanamericans and all americans. And id like to begin today by reflecting on that history. Starting back at the time when the army chose tuskegee as the site of its air field and Flight School for black pilots. Back then [applause] mrs. Obama black soldiers faced all kinds of obstacles. There was socalled scientific studies who said black mens brains were smaller than white mens. Official army reports stated that black soldiers were childlike shiftless unmoral and untruthful and as one quote stated if fed, loyal and compliant. So while the airmen selected for this program are actually highly educated, many already had College Degrees and pilot licenses they were presumed to be inferior. During training they were often assigned to menial tasks like housekeeping or landscaping. Many suffered verbal abuse at the hands of their instructors. When they ventured off base, the white sheriff here in town called them boy and ticketed them for the most minor offenses. And when they finally deployed overseas white soldiers often wouldnt even return their salutes. Now, just think about what that must have been like for those young men. Here they were trained to operate some of the most complicated, hightech machines of their day flying at hundreds of miles an hour with the tips of their wings just six inches apart. Yet, when they hit the ground folks treated them like they were nobody. As if their very existence meant nothing. Now, those air men could easily have let that experience clip their wings, but as you all know instead of being defined by the discrimination and the doubts of those around them, they became one of the most successful pursuit squadrons in our military. [applause] mrs. Obama they went on to show the world that if black folks and white folks could fight together and fly together, then surely, surely they could eat at a lunch counter together. Surely their kids could go to school together. You see, those air men always understood that they had a double duty. One to their country and another to all the black folks who were counting on them to pave the way forward. So for those air men, the act of flying itself was a symbol of liberation for themselves and for all africanamericans. One of those first pilots, a man named charles debow, put it this way. He said a takeoff was in his words a neverfailing miracle where all the bumps would smooth off youre in the air out of this world, free. And when he was up in the sky, charles sometimes looked down to see black folks out in the cotton fields not far from here, the same fields where decades before their ancestors worked as slaves and he knew that he was taking to the skies for them to give them and their children something more to hope for, something to aspire to and in so many ways that never failing miracle the constant work to rise above the bumps in our path to greater freedom for our brothers and sisters, that has always been the story of africanamericans here at tuskegee. Just think about the arc of this universitys history. Back in the late 1800s, the school needed a new dormitory, but there was no money to pay for it. So booker t. Washington pawned his pocket watch to buy a kiln and students used their bare hands to make bricks to build that dorm and a few other buildings along the way. A few years later when George Washington carver first came here for his research, there was no laboratory. So he dug through trash piles and collected old bottles and tea cups and fruit jars to use in his first experiments. Generation after generation, students here have shown that same grit, that same resilience to soar past obstacles and outrages, past the threats of countryside lynching, past the humiliation of jim crow, past the turmoil of the civil rights era. And then they went on to become scientists engineers nurses and teachers in communities all across the country and continue to lift others up along the way. And while the history of this campus isnt perfect, the defining story of tuskegee is the story of rising hopes and fortunes for all africanamericans. And now, graduates its your turn to take up that cause. And let me tell you, you should feel so proud of making it to this day. And i hope that youre spited to get started on that excited to get started on that next chapter, but i also imagine you might think about all that history, all those heroes who came before you and you might also feel a little pressure, you know. Pressure to live up to the legacy of those who came before you, pressure to meet the expectations of others and believe me, i understand that kind of pressure. [laughter] mrs. Obama ive experienced a little bit of it myself. You see, graduates, i didnt start out as the fully formed first lady who stands before you today. No no. I had my share of bumps along the way. Back when my husband first started campaigning for president , folks had all sorts of questions of me. What kind of first lady would i be . What kinds of issues would i take on . Would i be more like laura bush or Hillary Clinton or nancy reagan and the same truth, those same questions would be posed to any candidate spouse. Thats just the way the process works. But as potentially the first africanamerican first lady, i was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was i too loud or too angry or too emass could you emasculatting or was i too soft too much of a mom, not enough of a career woman . Then there was the first time i was on a magazine cover. It was a cartoon drawing of me with a huge afro and a machine gun. Now, yeah, it was satire, but if im really being honest, that knocked me back a bit. It made me wonder, just how are people seeing me . Or you might remember the onstage celebratory first bump between me and my husband during the primary that was said it was a first jab. One said i exhibited a little bit of upityyism. And another said i was one of my husbands crony of others. Cable news referred to me as obamas baby mama. And of course barack has his fair share of insults and sleights. Even today there are still folks questioning his citizenship. And all of this used to really get to me. Back in those days i had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about what people thought of me. Wondering if i might be hurting my husbands chances of winning his election, fearing how my girls would feel that they found out what some people were saying about their mom. But eventually i realized that if i wanted to keep my sanity and not let others define me, there was only one thing i could do and that was to have faith in gods plan for me. [applause] mrs. Obama i had to ignore all of the noise and be true to myself and the rest would work itself out. So throughout this journey, i have learned to block everything out and focus on my truth. I had to answer some basic questions for myself. Who am i . No, really who am i . What do i care about . And the answers to those questions have resulted in the woman who stands before you today. [applause] mrs. Obama a woman who is first and foremost a mom. Look, i love our daughters more than anything in the world, more than life itself, and while that may not be the first thing that some folks want to hear from an Ivy League Educated lawyer, it is truly who i am. So for me being mom and chief is and always will be job number one. Next ive always felt a deep sense of obligation to make the biggest impact possible with this incredible platform, so i took on issues that were personal to me. Issues like helping families raise healthier kids, honoring the incredible military families that ive met out on the campaign trail, inspiring our young people to value their education and finish college. Now, some folks criticized my choices for not being bold enough, but these were my choices, my issues and i decided to tackle them in a way that felt most authentic to me and a way that was both substantive and strategic but also fun and hopefully inspiring. So i immersed myself in the policy details. I worked with congress on legislation. I gave speeches to c. E. O. s, military generals, hollywood executives. But i also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way. So, yeah, i planted a garden and hula hooped with kids on the white house lawn. I did some tv with kermit the frog. I asked folks to wear their alma mater tshirts for College Signing day. And at the end of the day, by staying true to the me ive always known i found that this journey has been incredibly freeing because no matter what happened i had the piece of mind of knowing that all of the chatter, the name calling, the doubting all of it was just noise. It did not define me. It didnt change who i was. And most importantly, it couldnt hold me back. I have learned that as long as i hold fast to my beliefs and values and follow my own moral compass, then the only expectations that i need to live up to are my own. So graduates, thats what i want for all of you. I want i want you all to stay true to the most real most sincere most authentic parts of yourselves. I want you to ask those basic questions. Who do you want to be . What inspires you . How do you want to give back . And then i want you to take a deep breath and trust yourselves to chart your own course and make your mark on the world. Playboy it feels like youre supposed to go to law school but what you really want to do is teach little kids. Maybe your parents are expected you to come back home after you graduate but youre feeling a pull to travel the world. I want you to listen to those thoughts. I want you to act with both your mind but also your heart. And no matter what path you choose, i want you to make sure its you choosing it and not someone else. [applause] mrs. Obama because heres the thing. The road ahead is not going to be easy. It never is, especially for folks like you and me, because while weve come so far, the truth is that those age old problems are stubborn and they havent fully gone away. So there will be times, just like for those air men when you feel like folks look right past you or they see just a fraction of who you really are. The world wont always see you in those caps and gowns. They wont know how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed to make it to this day. The countless hours you spent studying to get this diploma, the multiple jobs you worked to pay for school, the times you had to drive home and take care of your grandma, the evenings you gave up to volunteer at a food bank or organize a campus fundraiser. They dont know that part of you. Instead, they will make assumptions about who they think you are based on their limited notion of the world. And my husband and i know how frustrating that experience can be. Weve both felt the sting of those daily sleights throughout our entire lives. The folks who cross the street in fear of their safety. The clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores. The people at formal events who assumed we were the help. And those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty even our love for this country. And i know that these are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day. Those nagging worries that youre going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason. The fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds. The agony of sending your kids to school that may no longer be separate but are far from equal. The realization that no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen for some folks it will never be enough. And all of that is going to be a heavy burden to carry. It can feel isolating. Can make you feel like your life somehow doesnt matter. That youre like the invisible man that Ralph Ellison wrote all those years ago. And as weve seen over the past few years, those feelings are real. Theyre rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible and those feelings are playing out in communities like baltimore and ferguson and so many others across this country. But graduates today i want to be very clear that those feelings are not an excuse to just throw up our hands and give up. Not an excuse. They are not an excuse to lose hope, to succumb to feelings of despair and anger only means that in the end we lose. But heres the thing. Our history provides us with a better story a better blueprint for how we