Topic: First Lady Michelle Obama

About 200 guests, including President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, attended the standing-room-only event in the White House's East Room.

The show is to air as "In Performance at the White House" Oct. 20 on PBS stations in the United States.

Obama noted that many of Broadway's biggest stars arrived in this country as poor immigrants and said that, at their best, Broadway musicals have not just served as entertainment, but also raised social consciousness, challenged stereotypes and helped shape "our opinions about race and religion, death and disease, power and politics."

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The weatherman said the wind was blowing in a blizzard so a star-studded concert at the U.S. White House celebrating civil rights era music was moved up a day.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had expected to hold the latest in the 2010 White House Music Series, "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement," Wednesday in the East Room but the impending bad weather prompted the change to Tuesday night.

The lineup included The Freedom Singers, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Yolanda Adams, Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, John Mellencamp, John Legend, Seal, the Howard University Choir and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah were the scheduled guest speakers.

Before they performed, the president told the audience attending the Black History Month event the civil rights movement and musicians of the time fed off each other, USA Today reported.

"It was music that was not only inspired by the movement, but gave strength in return," Obama said. "Let this music carry us forth, as one people. As one nation."

The concert will be televised at 8 p.m. EST Thursday on public broadcasting stations nationwide.

U.S. President Obama waved his hand over Courage the turkey Wednesday, pardoning the bird from being the guest of honor on someone's Thanksgiving Day table.

"I hereby pardon Courage so he can live out his days in peace and tranquility" in Disneyland, where he also will serve as grand marshal Thursday in the Orlando, Fla., theme park's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Obama said he was showing mercy to the 45-pound bird at the behest of first daughters Sasha and Malia because "I was planning to eat this sucker."

"That's a good-looking bird," Obama said several times during the minutes-long pardoning ceremony of Courage, who was bred in North Carolina along with his stand-in, Carolina.

Obama said he and first lady Michelle Obama would take two turkeys to Martha's Table, which provides meals for the Washington-area homeless.

"So, it's fair to say I've saved or created four turkeys," Obama said, poking fun at his stimulus plan and its mantra about saving or creating jobs.

In a more serious vein, Obama said he was thankful to serve the American people as president and to be commander in chief for U.S. troops, wishing service members and their families a happy Thanksgiving Day.

Times of war and bad economic conditions, such as the United States is experiencing now, makes remembering reasons to be thankful "resonate more powerfully," Obama said.

Courage, uttering only a few gobbles, was unruffled by the fanfare, even when Obama and the girls petted it.

She also tried a little jump rope, The Washington Post reported.

Speaking to dozens of children and parents at a Healthy Kids Fair on the White House South Lawn, Obama noted one in three American children are overweight, a condition known to lead to serious health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer in later years.

The situation is so dire, she said, "medical experts are now warning that for the first time in the history of this nation, we're headed for the next generation being on track to have a shorter life span than us."

While sounding that serious warning about the need to eat healthier and exercise more, Obama acknowledged in a light-hearted way how hard it can be to give up unhealthy foods, such has her favorite: french fries. She got laughs when she said: "I love them. Dearly. Deeply.:

"I have a good relationship with french fries and I would eat them every single day if I could. I really would," she said. "But I know that if I'm eating the right things -- and I tell my girls this -- if you're getting the right foods for most of the time, then when it's time to have cake and french fries on those special occasions, then you balance it out."

Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also pushed his department's challenge to U.S. middle and high schools to serve healthier food and provide more time for exercise and physical activity.