Michelle Obama urges students to fight discrimination 'in hearts and minds'

Young Americans must confront racism, intolerance and inequality, which still scar the United States 60 years after the end of officially sanctioned segregation, Michelle Obama has said.

The first lady on Friday challenged high school graduates to be prepared to “ruffle feathers” by fighting prejudice and discrimination at home, at college and in the workplace.

“Our laws may no longer separate us based on our skin colour, but there’s nothing in our constitution that says we have to eat together in the lunchroom or live together in the same neighbourhoods,” she told students graduating from the Topeka school district in Kansas.

“So the answers to many of our challenges today can’t necessarily be found in our laws; these changes also need to take place in our hearts and in our minds.”

Black parents in Topeka launched a challenge to segregated schooling in 1951 which led to the 1954 Brown v Board of Education US supreme court ruling, a landmark case which helped pave the way for the civil rights movement.

Barack Obama and other government officials marked the anniversary at separate events across the country.

The first lady told her audience they were the the living, breathing legacy of the case.

“Just look around this arena. Look at all the colours, cultures and faiths represented here. That’s why we’re celebrating here tonight because the fact is that your experience here in Topeka would have been unimaginable back in 1954, when Brown v Board of Education went to the supreme court.”

She hailed impressive strides since then but lamented that many schools and neighbourhoods were still de facto segregated, leaving young people to grow up in mono-ethnic and mono-racial environments.

She railed against crumbling schools, racial profiling and homophobia, fusing the civil rights struggle with other progressive causes, and urged her audience to challenge intolerance whether at home, online, on campus or at work.

“When folks made a big deal about Jason Collins and Michael Sam coming out as gay, a lot of kids in your generation thought, ‘So what? What’s the issue here?’” she said, referring to the first openly gay athlete to play in the NBA and the first to be drafted by an NFL team.

“And graduates, it’s up to all of you to lead the way and drag my generation and your grandparents’ generation along with you,” Obama said.

She said honest conversations were needed to heal the wounds of the past and move towards a better future. “Graduates, that is your mission, to make sure all those voices are heard. This won't be easy. You may need to ruffle a few feathers.”