Obama praises Memphis school at graduation

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Offering a lift to a flood-beleaguered city, President Barack Obama hailed the transformation of a once struggling but venerable Memphis high school Monday, telling its graduates, "You inspire me, that's why I'm here."

With the Mississippi River still lapping near the top of the city's protective levees, Obama also used the trip to meet privately with families, emergency personnel and volunteers confronting the highest floodwaters in generations.

For the president, the trip was a chance to promote his education agenda while also attending to the latest natural disaster -- the snow melt and rain that has sent a torrent of water down the Mississippi, topping earthworks and forcing flooding along its path.

In a city known as the heart of the blues, Obama addressed students from a high school in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood where graduation rates have risen impressively in just three years.

"You've always been underdogs," the president told the cheering Booker T. Washington High School graduates, arrayed in bright green-and-yellow mortar boards and gowns. "Nobody's handed you a thing. But that also means that whatever you accomplish in your life, you'll have earned it."

Inside the convention center his commencement audience extended well beyond the 150 graduating students and their families, attracting some of the city's and Tennessee's top political leadership.

Borrowing the refrain from his own 2008 presidential campaign, Obama said: "Well, we are here today because every single one of you stood up and said, 'Yes we can.' Yes, we can learn. Yes, we can succeed."

The school won a national competition to secure a graduation address from the president by illustrating how it overcame a history of disciplinary problems and high dropout rates and graduated 82 percent of its students. Innovative changes included separate freshman academies for boys and girls and a greater choice not only of advanced placement classes, but vocational studies as well.

Graduating senior Christopher Dean, who was featured in the school's video entry in the competition, had the distinction of introducing Obama.

"You've shown more grit and determination in your childhoods than a lot of adults ever will," Obama said.

Dating back to 1873, the school was the city's first to educate blacks, earning a distinguished history. Among its graduates are former NAACP executive director Benjamin Hooks, evangelist and songwriter Lucie Campbell, and Willie Herenton, the first elected black mayor of Memphis.