President Joe Biden on Friday called black history “American history” as he courts African-American voters crucial to his re-election bid.
“Black history is American history, we have a whole group trying to rewrite history, erase history,” Biden said at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.
He was there to mark the 70th anniversary of the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The decision banned segregation in public schools.
Seventy years ago, you changed the world,” Biden told the crowd.
“The Brown decision proves a simple idea: We learn better when we learn together,” he noted.
In his remarks, Biden praised all he has done for the Black community, including helping minority businesses, supporting Black education and helping reduce Black poverty.
He also pointed out that he has a black vice president: Kamala Harris.
“Black history is American history,” President Joe Biden said
Biden is increasing his appeal to Black voters, a core group that helped him get elected, as they show growing disillusionment with him and his presidency.
In addition to his speech on Friday, he and Harris will meet with leaders of the “Divine Nine,” the historically black sororities and fraternities of which Harris is a member.
The president has given eleven interviews to black radio hosts this year alone.
Biden will spend the weekend courting this vital group of core supporters, who helped him win the Democratic nomination and the White House in the 2020 election.
The main event will be his speech at Morehouse University, his first speech of the year on Sunday.
The prestigious, historically all-male, black university is the alma mater of several prominent black Americans, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., actor Samuel Jackson and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.
“I have more Morehouse men in my administration than Morehouse,” Biden joked Friday.
Biden’s courtship began Thursday, when he hosted plaintiffs from the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case at the White House.
He will meet with black voters in Georgia on Saturday.
Biden will deliver the speech on Sunday at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Georgia is one of the key swing states in which Biden won Trump in 2020. He will receive an honorary doctorate from the school.
There are concerns about protests. Some Morehouse faculty and students oppose U.S. support of Israel in the Gaza war.
Steve Benjamin, a senior adviser and White House director of public engagement, told reporters Thursday that Biden believed in free speech, “and that the right to free speech extends to even those who want to protest and he respects that, and he makes a point of pointing out when there are protesters in the same room.”
The president will be in Detroit on Sunday evening to deliver the keynote speech at an NAACP event. He will also visit a local black-owned business.
Spectators at the National Museum of African American History and Culture listen to President Joe Biden’s speech
Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, left, greets President Joe Biden
His re-election campaign has cause for concern.
Polls show that while Biden still leads Republican rival Donald Trump in support among black voters, his level of support has fallen sharply compared to four years ago.
“He has to answer two questions: Why bother voting, which is almost the same question of what, to me, does it bring to voters,” Cedric Richmond, co-chair of Biden’s campaign, told CNN. “And then he has to answer the Janet Jackson test of – ‘What have you done for me lately?’
A poll of the New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer, released earlier this week, found Biden leading Trump among black voters, 63 percent to 23 percent. But that is more than 20 points less than the 87 percent of black voters who voted for Biden in 2020.
Moreover, a Washington Post-Ipsos Poll A survey last month found that fewer Black Americans plan to vote in November.
The survey of more than 1,300 Black adults shows that 62 percent of them say they are “absolutely certain” to vote, up from 74 percent in June 2020. The 12 percentage point decline exceeds the four-point decline among Americans overall. from 72 percent to 68 percent.
Young black voters in particular are not enthusiastic about Biden. Overall, nearly 1 in 5 Black voters who voted for Biden in 2020 say they are unsure whether they will vote at all this year.
The campaign is ramping up their efforts and bringing big names to court for black voters on Biden’s behalf.
Congressman Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who is one of the country’s best-known and best-loved black politicians, will travel to numerous swing states on the president’s behalf later this year.
His stops include Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Ohio.
Clyburn, a civil rights icon, effectively handed Biden the Democratic nomination four years ago when he helped Biden win the presidential primary in South Carolina.
People watch the motorcade with President Joe Biden near the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Congressman Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, will campaign for President Biden in swing states – above Clyburn with Biden at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston
A lengthy memo from Biden’s re-election campaign on Friday outlines everything the president and vice president have done for the Black community.
“While Black unemployment skyrocketed under Trump, the Biden-Harris administration helped create more than 2.5 million jobs for Black workers, resulting in record low Black unemployment,” wrote Trey Baker, a senior adviser to the campaign.
Baker also points to the number of forgiven student loans that have gone to the Black community and that Black child poverty has been cut in half.
“This campaign will not take any voter for granted. We do not and will not invade these communities at the last minute while waiting for their vote. Every day, from now until Election Day, we will continue to work hard to ensure that Black voters send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House this November,” he noted.