--- title: Barack Obama at Howard: Commencement Address Transcript description: Here's everything President Barack Obama told the Howard University class of 2016 during his commencement address on May 7 canonical: https://time.com/4329354/president-barack-obama-commencement-speech-transcript-howard/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-02T18:36:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:32:15.885Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Barack Obama's Howard University Commencement Address og:description: "Make no mistake, class of 2016, you’ve got plenty of work to do" og:url: https://time.com/4329354/president-barack-obama-commencement-speech-transcript-howard/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf953df17eea969bc/69889315bc6cfc27da3dcf90/barack-obama-howard-graduation.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama at Howard University Graduation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Barack Obama's Howard University Commencement Address twitter:description: "Make no mistake, class of 2016, you’ve got plenty of work to do" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf953df17eea969bc/69889315bc6cfc27da3dcf90/barack-obama-howard-graduation.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Commencement Address at Howard University  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 2, 2016 6:36 PM UTC  Barack Obama speaks during the 148th commencement ceremony at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 2016. Barack Obama speaks during the 148th commencement ceremony at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 2016.Al Drago—CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 2, 2016 6:36 PM UTC President Barack Obama [delivered the commencement address](http://time.com/4322109/president-obama-howard-university-graduation-speech/) at Howard University on May 7, striking an optimistic tone and calling on the graduating class to meet challenges ahead. “Make no mistake class of 2016, you’ve got plenty of work to do,” he said. “But the truth is your generation is more positioned than ever to meet those challenges.” Here are the [full remarks](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/07/remarks-president-howard-university-commencement-ceremony) from Obama’s speech on Howard’s campus in Washington, D.C. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4329354/president-barack-obama-commencement-speech-transcript-howard/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4329354/president-barack-obama-commencement-speech-transcript-howard/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Commencement Address at Howard University","datePublished":"2016-06-02T18:36:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:32:15.885Z","description":"\"Make no mistake, class of 2016, you’ve got plenty of work to do\"","url":"https://time.com/4329354/president-barack-obama-commencement-speech-transcript-howard/","keywords":["Barack Obama","White House","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf953df17eea969bc/69889315bc6cfc27da3dcf90/barack-obama-howard-graduation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf953df17eea969bc/69889315bc6cfc27da3dcf90/barack-obama-howard-graduation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama at Howard University Graduation","caption":"Barack Obama speaks during the 148th commencement ceremony at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 2016.","creditText":"Al Drago—CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4329354/president-barack-obama-commencement-speech-transcript-howard/","name":"Read President Obama's Commencement Address at Howard University"}}]}] ```