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First Lady Michelle Obama Tells Wale What She Would Be If....
President Obama Celebrates 54th Birthday!
Terrence Jenkins aka Terrence J, led a discus- sion on higher education with First Lady Michelle Obama, student Manuel Contreras, rapper Wale, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan during an event in the East Room of the White House.
The First Lady hosted the 2015 Beating the Odds Sum- mit, which recognizes youths who have overcome substan- tial obstacles to persevere through high school and con- tinue on to college.
Michelle Obama posted on her Instagram account on Friday an interview she did with Wale for her Reach Higher Initiative, which is her “effort to inspire every student in America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, whether at a professional training pro- gram, a community college, or a four-year college or uni- versity.”
The interview was taped last week after Mrs. Obama’s Beating the Odds summit, which the First Lady invited more than 100 col- lege-bound students to cele-
Terrance J, FLOTUS Michelle Obama, student, Manuel Contreras, Wale, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Happy birthday, Mr. Pres- ident!
Pres. Barack Obama
turned 54 on Tuesday and all of Twitter is celebrating – in- cluding his First Lady Michelle Obama and his pres- idential predecessor Bill Clin- ton.
@FLOTUS sent her "lov- ing husband" (and "favorite dance partner") a sweet Tweet to ring in his special day, including the shot of the couple hitting the dance floor at the 2013 Inaugural Ball.
She captioned the photo, "Happy birthday to a loving husband, wonderful father and my favorite dance part- ner. 54 looks good on you, @POTUS! -mo."
President and First Lady Obama at 2013 Inaugural Ball.
brate their achievements. Wale asked FLOTUS a se- ries of questions, among them “If you had the oppor- tunity to have a different oc- cupation, what would it be?”
“I would be Beyoncé,” says Obama. “I’ve got the hands,” she said, demon- strating her moves.
This is not the first time the First Lady has revealed her obsession for Queen Bey. In an interview with PEOPLE in 2012, when asked who she would be if she could be someone else,
the First Lady replied: “Gosh. If I had some gift, I’d be Beyoncé, I’d be some great singer. The power of music, being able to play an instrument ... It looks like musicians just have the most
fun.”
The Obamas have long
admired Beyonce and her husband, Jay Z. They in- vited the multi-Grammy- award winning singer to perform at the Neighbor- hood Ball celebrating the president’s inauguration in 2009.
Black Clergy, Dems Vow To Restore Voting Rights Act On 50th Anniversary
Calling it a “moral issue,” prominent Black clergy lead- ers will join President Barack Obama in the push to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which cele- brated the 50th anniversary on Thursday, August 6th.
The Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a key provision of the measure that required nine Southern states with a legacy of racial discrimination to procure federal approval before amending their voting laws. The decision made it possible for states such as North Carolina and Texas to adopt restrictive rules requir- ing voters to bring certain identification to the polls.
The President and other Democrats such as Demo- cratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz ar- gued that the laws discourage people of color from heading to the polls.
Republicans, on Thursday squared off in the first 2016 presidential debate, contend- ing that strict ID laws are aimed at reducing voter fraud.
“Today we are witnessing the most vicious and draco- nian assault that we’ve wit- nessed in 50 years since the Voting Rights Act was en- acted,” the Rev. Dr. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock, Senior Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, spiritual home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said on Wednes- day.
“We must fight to protect the right of every American to end this vicious assault,” he said. “We’re calling on Con- gress to fix the Voting Rights Act.”
Warnock, was joined on a call with Dr. James C. Perkins, President of the powerful Progressive Na- tional Baptist Convention (PNBC); Martin Luther
King, III; and the Rev. Dr. James Forbes, the first African American to Pastor the historic Riverside Church in Harlem who is now a Fel- low at the Drum Major Insti- tute, an advocacy group.
‘We view this as a moral issue,” Perkins said. “Voting is the most basic and funda- mental right that any citizen has in a democracy.”
King echoed those senti- ments, and stressed how im- portant the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was to his father, who brought national visibility to the plight of disenfranchised Black voters during the Selma to Montgomery marches months before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation.
Indeed, the leaders echoed Warnock’s sentiments ahead of the PNBC conven- tion, which is convened a forum Wednesday in Dallas, Texas, announcing its support of the new Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, (designed to restore the Vot- ing Rights Act), and a nation- wide voter registration drive.
“If churches are faithful to their mandate, they will cre- ate the conditions to push Congress to fix the Voting Rights Act,” Forbes said.
On Thursday, President Obama hosted a teleconfer- ence to commemorate the landmark legislation and call for its renewal. He was joined by U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee during a confer- ence call on Tuesday, con- demned Republican presidential candidates for supporting strict voter ID laws. She also knocked the Republican National Committee‘s hashtag, #CommittedToCommunity.
Presidential/Government News
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