Michelle Obama addresses Tuskegee University graduates

TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) — Michelle Obama on Saturday invoked the storied history of Tuskegee University as she urged new graduates to soar to their futures, saying the past provides a blueprint for a country still struggling with the "age-old problems" of discrimination and race.

The first lady gave the commencement address at the historically black university in Alabama. Obama described how the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed first African-American pilots of World War II, endured humiliating slights as they shattered racial stereotypes about the capabilities of black men and how the university's students in the 1800's made bricks by hand to construct campus buildings so future generations could study there.

"Generation after generation, students here have shown that same grit, that same resilience to soar past obstacles and outrages -- past the threat of countryside lynchings; past the humiliation of Jim Crow; past the turmoil of the Civil Rights era. And then they went on to become scientists, engineers, nurses and teachers in communities all across the country -- and continued to lift others up along the way," Obama said.

The defining story of Tuskegee is the story of rising hopes and fortunes for all African Americans. And now, graduates, it's your turn to take up that cause," Obama said of the university founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington.

The first lady, taking head on the issue of racial discrimination, mentioned the strife that has occurred in Baltimore and Ferguson — and the slights she and the president have endured — as she addressed the school's 500 mostly African-American graduates.

"The road ahead is not going to be easy. It never is, especially for folks like you and me. Because while we've come so far, the truth is those age-old problems are stubborn, and they haven't fully gone away," Obama said.