President Obama will give the commencement address at Howard University’s graduation ceremonies on May 7, the school and the White House announced Thursday.
Obama’s remarks will be delivered to about 1,300 undergraduate students, 400 graduate students, and 400 students receiving professional degrees. The president will also receive an honorary degree from Howard, the country’s best-known historically black university, along with the actress Cicely Tyson and Horace Greeley Dawson Jr., a former US ambassador and State Department official.
“President Obama’s own legacy gives the Howard Community great expectations for the leadership footprint it will leave on America and the globe,” Howard President Wayne Frederick says in a press release.
Obama has given 22 graduation speeches to high schools, colleges, and service academies since becoming president, including to two other HBCUs (Morehouse College and Hampton University). But his remarks to Howard will be also be Obama’s first commencement address at a DC-area college. Obama will also give a commencement address next month at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch was announced as the keynote speaker for the Howard School of Law’s graduation ceremony, also on May 7.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
