First lady Michelle Obama talked about her personal battle against racism as the first African American first lady in the White House. Her description for racism came when she addressed a crowd of graduates and their families at the 2015 commencement ceremony at Tuskegee University, Alabama.

Everybody present there applauded the 30-minute commencement address from Ms. Obama. She also questioned the pace at which America has made progress on race relations.

Obama highlighted Tuskegee's rich history during her speech, saying it was one of the top black universities in the US and the training place of the US's first World War II African American pilots. The Tuskegee Airmen faced institutionalized discrimination during that time.

The black soldiers were described as "shiftless", "childlike", and "unmoral and untruthful" by official Army reports.

"Just think about what that must have been like for those young men. Here they were, trained to operate some of the most complicated, high-tech machines of their day. Yet when they hit the ground, folks treated them like they were nobody -- as if their very existence meant nothing", Mrs. Obama said during her address.

The first lady continued that the discrimination and the doubts around those Airmen couldn't deprive them from being most successful pursuit squadrons in military.

Ms. Obama said the US has made significant progress on race relations, but a lot still needs to be done in future. She said media has attacked her race and questioned her character during her own journey to the White House.

She said it is highly unlikely that the graduating classes of 2015 and the next generations of African Americans do not face racism. She said the long-unsolved problems are stubborn and have not completely moved out of the picture.