During his speech to Morehouse College graduates on Sunday, President Joe Biden said that he had heard their pain over the war between Israel and Hamas and that scenes from the fighting in Gaza have broken his heart.
Some of the students at the historically Black, all-male college wore keffiyeh scarves around their shoulders over their black graduation robes. “I support peaceful, nonviolent protest,” he told them. “You deserve to be heard, and I promise I do see you.”
“There is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the president said. “That’s why I’ve called for an immediate cease-fire to stop the fighting” and bring back the hostages that Hamas took when it attacked Israel on October 7.
He talked about American democracy and his role in protecting it near the end of his speech. These were the most direct words he used to address U.S. students about the nationwide protests on college campuses.
Biden told the graduates, “It’s one of the world’s hardest and most difficult problems.” “It’s not easy at all.” It makes me mad and annoyed, just like it does my family. I know it breaks your heart more than anything else. It breaks my heart too.
The speech, along with one planned for later Sunday in Detroit, is part of the president’s push to reach out to Black voters. His support among these voters has been falling since they helped him win the presidency in 2020.
A big part of Biden’s speech was about problems at home. He was against what Donald Trump said about immigrants and pointed out that the class of 2024 started college after the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd. Biden told them and other people that it was normal to wonder if the democracy “you hear about really works for you.”
“If black men are being killed on the street. “Equal rights?” he asked. “The path of broken promises that still leave Black communities behind” Just what is democracy? If you need to be 10 times better than everyone else to have a fair chance.
Campuses across the US have been rocked by protests over the war. Columbia University canceled its main graduation event. The news that Biden would be the commencement speaker at Morehouse caused some controversy among the faculty and people who don’t agree with how the president is handling the war.
Some Morehouse alumni put out an online letter criticizing administrators for inviting Biden and asking people to sign it so that President David Thomas of Morehouse would take back the invitation.
It was said in the letter that Biden’s approach to Israel was like supporting genocide in Gaza and was different from the pacifism of Martin Luther King Jr., who was Morehouse’s most famous graduate.
Around 1,200 people were killed when Hamas attacked southern Israel. Palestinian health officials in Gaza say that Israel’s offensive has killed more than 35,000 people.
However, the event went off without a hitch in the end. During Biden’s speech, at least seven graduates and a faculty member sat with their backs to the speaker. One student covered himself in a Palestinian flag.
A Congolese flag was raised by academics on the stage behind the president as he spoke. The African country has been in a civil war for a long time, and many people who work for racial justice have asked that the conflict get more attention and that the United States help end the violence.
At the end of his speech, DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher, the class valedictorian, said that it was his duty to talk about the war in Gaza and that it was important to remember that both Palestinians and Israelis have been hurt.
“From the comfort of our own homes, we watch an unheard-of number of civilians mourn the deaths of men, women, and children while demanding that all hostages be freed,” he said. He said, “As a Morehouse man and a person, it is my duty to call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.”
After Fletcher was done, Biden walked up and shook his hand. Biden was also given an honorary degree by the college.
Biden joked, “I’m not going home,” after accepting the award. Before he left the stage, chants of “four more years” broke out in the crowd. He was going to Detroit to give a speech at an NAACP dinner.
Georgia and Michigan are two of the states that will likely have an impact on the rematch between Biden and Trump in November. Biden just barely won Georgia and Michigan in 2020, and he needs to do it again. Strong Black voter turnout in both cities will help him.
Toward the end of last week, Biden reached out to Black voters.
He talked to people who were plaintiffs and family members of people who were involved in Brown v. Board of Education, the famous 1954 Supreme Court case that banned racial segregation in public schools. He also talked to members of the “Divine Nine” Black sororities and fraternities and met members of the “Divine Nine.” The “Divine Nine” helped integrate a public school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
Before he gave the keynote speech at the NAACP’s Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Biden was going to visit a small business owned by Black people. The dinner always has thousands of people.
Biden can reach thousands of people in Wayne County through the speech. Wayne County has historically voted Democratic, but there are signs that people there don’t want him to be re-elected.
Wayne County also has one of the largest Arab American populations in the country. Most of these people live in the city of Dearborn. Leaders in that state were at the front of a “uncommitted” campaign that got over 100,000 votes in the state’s Democratic primary and spread across the country.
In Dearborn, there were plans for a rally and march to protest Biden’s visit. At the dinner spot, another protest rally was planned.
