--- title: Barack Obama at Booker T Washington: Commencement Address description: Read Barack Obama's commencement speech at Booker T. Washington High School in 2011. canonical: https://time.com/4340922/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-booker-t-washington-high-school/ author: Barack Obama article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-02T18:31:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:39:16.816Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Obama's Commencement Address at Booker T. Washington High School og:description: "With the right education, both at home and at school, you can learn how to be a better human being" og:url: https://time.com/4340922/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-booker-t-washington-high-school/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19203ae447ff0a15/698893d3cf40a894edc434cf/barack-obama-booker-t-washington-high-school.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US President Barack Obama delivers the c og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Obama's Commencement Address at Booker T. Washington High School twitter:description: "With the right education, both at home and at school, you can learn how to be a better human being" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19203ae447ff0a15/698893d3cf40a894edc434cf/barack-obama-booker-t-washington-high-school.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Commencement Address at Booker T. Washington High School  by [Barack Obama](https://time.com/author/barack-obama/)  ## Barack Obama Jun 2, 2016 6:31 PM UTC  President Barack Obama delivers the commencement address at the Booker T. Washington High School graduation ceremony May 16, 2011 in Memphis, Tennessee. President Barack Obama delivers the commencement address at the Booker T. Washington High School graduation ceremony May 16, 2011 in Memphis, Tennessee.Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images  by [Barack Obama](https://time.com/author/barack-obama/)  ## Barack Obama Jun 2, 2016 6:31 PM UTC Here are the [full remarks](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/16/remarks-president-booker-t-washington-high-school-commencement) from Obama’s speech at Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, Tennessee in 2011. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4340922/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-booker-t-washington-high-school/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4340922/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-booker-t-washington-high-school/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Commencement Address at Booker T. Washington High School","datePublished":"2016-06-02T18:31:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:39:16.816Z","description":"\"With the right education, both at home and at school, you can learn how to be a better human being\"","url":"https://time.com/4340922/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-booker-t-washington-high-school/","keywords":["Barack Obama","White House","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19203ae447ff0a15/698893d3cf40a894edc434cf/barack-obama-booker-t-washington-high-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Barack Obama","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/barack-obama/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19203ae447ff0a15/698893d3cf40a894edc434cf/barack-obama-booker-t-washington-high-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Barack Obama delivers the c","caption":"US President Barack Obama delivers the c","creditText":"Mandel Ngan—AFP/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/4340922/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-booker-t-washington-high-school/","name":"Read President Obama's Commencement Address at Booker T. Washington High School"}}]}] ```