At a commencement address at Tuskegee University yesterday, Michelle Obama used her time to talk about her experience as the first African-American First Lady.

Rowena Lindsay reports for the Christian Science Monitor:

What did Michelle Obama say to Tuskegee University graduates?

First lady Michelle Obama spoke at the 130th commencement ceremony of Tuskegee University, one of the nation’s top historically black universities.

First lady Michelle Obama gave a commencement speech at Tuskegee University’s graduation ceremony Saturday in which she discussed the school’s importance in African American history and how to overcome the challenges (including racism) in American today.

Tuskegee University, in Alabama, is the first stop in a series of graduation ceremonies Mrs. Obama will be speaking at this year as part of her Reach Higher initiative, including Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio; and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Preparatory High School (King College Prep) in Chicago, Ill..

Tuskegee has a reputation as one of America’s top historically black universities. Throughout Saturday’s speech Obama referenced the history of the school. She described the humiliation that the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American pilots of World War II, endured and she told the story of the school’s first students making bricks by hand when they received no funding for construction.