ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden delivers the commencement address at Morehouse College on Sunday, a key election-year opportunity to appear before a black audience but one that could also expose him directly to the anger of some of these students and others across the country he has his expressed powerful support for Israel in its war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
The White House indicated that Biden would address the concerns of students and faculty at the historically black, all-male college about his approach to the war. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “stay tuned” when asked whether the Democratic president would address concerns that sparked weeks of student protests on college campuses across the country.
The speech, and a separate speech Biden will give later Sunday in the Midwest, is part of a series of outreach to black voters by the president, who has watched his support among those voters wane since their powerful support helped him to get into the Oval Office in 2020.
After his speech at the Morehouse in Atlanta, Biden will travel to Detroit to speak at an NAACP dinner.
Georgia and Michigan are among the few states that will assist decide the rematch between Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump, expected in November. Biden narrowly won Georgia and Michigan in 2020 and needs to do so again, buoyed by high Black voter turnout in both cities.
Jean-Pierre said Biden was looking forward to Morehouse’s speech, as he does all of his inaugural speeches. He wrote the remarks himself along with senior advisers, she said.
“When it comes to this difficult moment when we talk about the protests, he understands that there is great pain,” Jean-Pierre said. “He understands that people have many opinions, and he respects that people have many opinions.”
Biden spent part of Saturday warming up for the substantial speech. He was greeted at the Atlanta airport by a group of Morehouse alumni and playfully put an arm around one of them. He later visited Mary Mac’s, a Black-owned restaurant that opened nearly 80 years ago, to briefly speak to about 50 supporters. A 2024 Morehouse graduate introduced him.
The president joked about being surrounded by “Morehouse Men.”
Biden spent the end of last week reaching out to Black voters. He met with plaintiffs and families of those involved in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that outlawed racial segregation in public schools. He also met with members of the black Divine Nine fraternities and sororities and spoke with members of the Little Rock Nine, who helped integrate a public school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
Morehouse’s announcement that Biden would be the commencement speaker sparked some backlash from the school’s faculty members and supporters who oppose Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Some Morehouse graduates circulated an online letter condemning school administrators for inviting Biden and asking for signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind the letter.
The letter claimed that Biden’s stance toward Israel amounted to support for the genocide in Gaza and was inconsistent with the pacifism expressed by Martin Luther King Jr., Morehouse’s most eminent alumnus.
Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7 left 1,200 people dead. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Thomas tried to downplay the prospect of student protests during the ceremony. He called the all-male campus a place that, like other historically black colleges and universities, can balance social justice and political activism with a sense of order and decorum appropriate at commencement and a presidential address .
“I think you’ll find on a spectrum that we represent both ends – those who are vehemently opposed to the president’s speech and those on the other end who think it’s a great thing … and who see no contradiction between their feelings “about what’s going on in Gaza and about the incoming president,” he said.
But some students in Morehouse and the surrounding campus areas of the Atlanta University Center (AUC) continue to strongly oppose Biden’s appearance. They accuse Thomas and Morehouse trustees of prioritizing status and forging political alliances rather than the values the school represents.
AUC students, faculty and alumni held a rally and protest against Biden on Friday.
“If our famous HBCUs and administrators truly loved the activism they claim to advocate and use as a marketing tool, then they would … stand with us as we pray to God, ‘From the West End to the West Bank,'” Morehouse said junior Lonnie White of Atlanta is among the students who have participated in two AUC demonstrations in recent weeks.
Student protest leaders said they knew of no organized protest plans on the site itself.
“I don’t even have a ticket,” said Morehouse sophomore Anwar Karim, who led a petition calling on Thomas to rescind Biden’s invitation.
Karim said he expected some students to attend nearby gatherings previously held to commemorate Malcolm’s birthday
Thomas said in the interview that serene, non-disruptive protests would be tolerated, but reiterated his commitment to cancel the ceremony if disruptions increased.
Former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Morehouse graduate and Biden campaign co-chairman who brokered the president’s appearance, called the graduation ceremony a “celebratory event” and said the gravity of the moment should give would-be protesters pause.
“I would hope that people don’t interrupt such a once-in-a-lifetime moment for the students, parents and grandparents who are there to see these young men walk across the stage,” Richmond said.
In Detroit, Biden was scheduled to visit a Black-owned miniature business before delivering the keynote address at the NAACP’s Freedom Fund dinner, which traditionally draws thousands of attendees. The speech gives Biden a chance to reach thousands of people in Wayne County, an area that has voted overwhelmingly Democratic in the past but has shown signs of resistance to his re-election.
Wayne County is also home to one of the largest Arab-American populations in the country, predominantly in the city of Dearborn. Leaders there spearheaded a “leagueless” effort that garnered more than 100,000 votes in the state’s Democratic primary and spread across the country.
A protest and march against Biden’s visit is planned for Sunday afternoon in Dearborn. Another protest is expected later this evening outside Huntington Place, the dinner venue.
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Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
