ATLANTA –
President Joe Biden is delivering the commencement address at Morehouse College on Sunday, a key opportunity for an election-year appearance before a Black audience but one that also could directly expose him to the anger that some of these and other students across the country have been expressing over his staunch support for Israel in its war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
The White House hinted that Biden would reference the concerns of students and faculty at the male-only, historically Black college over his approach to the war. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “stay tuned,” when asked if the Democratic president would address the worries that sparked weeks of student protests on college campuses nationwide.
Nearly all the streets around the campus were shut down for the event. As the packed crowd gathered just before graduates began filing into the quad, Associate Provost Mel Foster warned: “Although we respect everyone’s right to free speech, Morehouse College has issued guidelines to ensure we are in line with the law.”
Some members of the graduating class showed support for Palestinians in Gaza by tying keffiyeh scarves around their shoulders on top of their black graduation robes. One student draped himself in a Palestinian flag.
“Thank you God for this ‘woke’ class of 2024 that is in tune with the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times,“ the Rev. Clyburn Lea Jr. said during a prayer at the start of the commencement.
The class valedictorian, DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher, said at the close of his speech that it was his duty to speak on the war in Gaza and that it was important to recognize that both Palestinians and Israelis have suffered.
“From the comfort of our homes, we watch an unprecedented number of civilians mourn the loss of men, women and children, while calling for the release of all hostages he said. “It is my stance as a Morehouse man, nay as a human being, to call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.”
Biden stook and shook his hand after Fletcher finished.
The speech, and a separate one Biden is giving later Sunday in the Midwest, is part of a burst of outreach to Black constituents by the president, who has watched his support among these voters soften since their strong backing helped put him in the Oval Office in 2020.
After speaking at Morehouse in Atlanta, Biden will travel to Detroit to address an NAACP dinner.
Georgia and Michigan are among a handful of states that will help decide November’s expected rematch between Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump. Biden narrowly won Georgia and Michigan in 2020 and needs to repeat — with a boost from strong Black voter turnout in both cities.
Jean-Pierre said Biden has been looking forward to the Morehouse speech, as he does all of his commencement addresses. He has been writing the remarks himself, along with senior advisers, she said.
“When it comes to this difficult moment in time that we’re in as we speak about the protests, he understands that there’s a lot of pain,” Jean-Pierre said. “He understands that people have a lot of opinions and he respects that folks have a lot of opinions.”
Morehouse’s announcement that Biden would be the commencement speaker drew some backlash among the school’s faculty and supporters who oppose Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Some Morehouse alumni circulated an online letter condemning school administrators for inviting Biden and soliciting signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind it.
The letter claimed that Biden’s approach to Israel amounted to support of genocide in Gaza and was out of step with the pacifism expressed by Martin Luther King Jr., Morehouse’s most famous graduate.
The Hamas Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials.
Biden spent the back end of the past week reaching out to Black constituents. He met with plaintiffs and relatives 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 “Divine Nine” Black fraternities and sororities and spoke with members of the Little Rock Nine, who helped integrate a public school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
In Detroit, Biden was set to visit a Black-owned small 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 historically voted overwhelmingly Democratic but has shown signs of resistance to his reelection bid.
Wayne County also holds one of the largest Arab American populations in the nation, predominantly in the city of Dearborn. Leaders there were at the forefront of an “uncommitted” effort that received over 100,000 votes in the state’s Democratic primary and spread across the country.
A protest rally and march against Biden’s visit are planned for Sunday afternoon in Dearborn. Another protest rally is expected later that evening outside Huntington Place, the dinner venue.
