Michelle Obama's speech at the White House

"A girl like me, she was never supposed to live in this house."  Michelle Obama is back in the White House and gave this moving speech ...

Transcript

00:00A girl like me, she was never supposed to be up there next to Jacqueline Kennedy and Dolly Madison.

00:08She was never supposed to live in this house, and she definitely wasn't supposed to serve as First Lady.

00:23And too often in this country people feel like they have to look a certain way

00:29or act a certain way to fit in, that they have to make a lot of money or come from a certain group

00:35or class or faith in order to matter. But what we're looking at today, a portrait of a biracial

00:45kid with an unusual name and the daughter of a water pump operator and a stay-at-home mom,

00:53what we are seeing is a reminder that there's a place for everyone in this country.

00:59Because as Barack said, if the two of us can end up on the walls of the most famous address in the world,

01:06then again it is so important for every young kid who is doubting themselves to believe that

01:12they can too. That is what this country is about. It's not about blood or pedigree or wealth.

01:21It's a place where everyone should have a fair shot. Whether you're a kid taking two buses and

01:27a train just to get to school, or a single mother who's working two jobs to put some food on the

01:33table, or an immigrant just arriving, getting your first apartment, forging a future for yourself in

01:41a place you dreamed of. That's why for me this day isn't about me or Barack. It's not even about

01:48these beautiful paintings. It's about telling that fuller story, a story that includes every single

01:55American in every single corner of the country, so that our kids and grandkids can see something

02:00more for themselves. And as much as some folks might want us to believe that that story has

02:07lost some of its shine, that division and discrimination and everything else might have

02:14dimmed its light, I still know deep in my heart that what we share, as my husband continues to say,

02:23is so much bigger than what we don't. Our democracy is so much stronger than our differences.

02:32And this little girl from the South Side is blessed beyond measure to have felt the truth

02:38of that fuller story throughout her entire life, never more so than today.