Biden Gets Praise at Morehouse Speech as He Loses Black Support

President Joe Biden received a standing ovation from Morehouse College administrators following his commencement speech on Sunday as polls show him at a loss with Black voters.

With this year’s presidential election less than six months away, Biden spoke to Morehouse’s recent graduates in Atlanta on Sunday. Morehouse is a historically Black college for men and has educated the likes of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

During his speech, Biden talked about his life as a public servant and how the assassination of King Jr. led him to quit his “fancy law firm” to become a public defender. The president said, “Dr. King’s legacy had a profound impact on me and my generation.”

Biden talked about the accomplishments of Black people in America, such as the election of former President Barack Obama, whom he served under as vice president, and current Vice President Kamala Harris, who is not only the first woman vice president, but the first vice president of color.

“I’m proud to have the most diverse administration in history to tap into the full talents of our nation. I’m also proud to put in the first Black woman on the United States Supreme Court,” Biden said referring to his nomination of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “I have no doubt one day a Morehouse man will be on that Court as well.”

Biden received applause, cheers, and even some laughs throughout his speech.

However, a video on X, formerly Twitter, showed a graduate with his back turned on Biden as he spoke as a sign of protest. The president did say during his speech, “I support peaceful non-violent protest.”

Morehouse College President David Thomas thanked Biden after his speech, telling him and the rest of the crowd at commencement, “I want to say that from my point of view. You’ve been listening.”

Biden received a standing ovation from the administrators on stage and college alumni in the audience. However, the students remained seated.

Biden was then presented with an honorary degree and, according to The New York Times, several students walked out at this point.

There was outcry throughout campus when the announcement of Biden being chosen for commencement speaker was made last month, given the tense climate surrounding the president’s handling of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. There was also protests outside of the ceremony on Sunday while several students and faculty at graduation wore Keffiyeh scarves, which are traditionally worn by Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the class valedictorian DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher, wearing a Palestinian flag pin on his stole, said in his speech, “It is only right for the class of 2024 to utilized any platform provided to stand in solidarity with peace and justice…It is my stance as a Morehouse man, nay as a human being, to call for an immediate and the permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.” Biden clapped from his seat behind Fletcher when he called for a ceasefire.

Biden did acknowledge the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his speech, calling it “heartbreaking.”

“That’s why I’ve called for an immediate ceasefire…I’ve been working on a deal as we speak. We’re going around the clock…I’m working to make sure we finally get a two-state solution,” he said.

While the U.S. stands behind its ally Israel and its right to self-defense after Hamas led the deadliest militant attack on Israel in history on October 7, 2023. The Biden administration also acknowledges the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has called for a temporary ceasefire to get hostages from Hamas’ attack that remain in Gaza home and get humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Hamas’ attack killed some 1,200, while at least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s military operation in Gaza following the attack. Hamas also took roughly 250 hostages in October of which about 100 still remain in Gaza, along with the remains of over 30 more.

Biden Losing Black Voters

Biden won Georgia in 2020 against then-President Donald Trump by a little over 12,000 votes (49.5 to 49.3 percent). But recent polling has shown that another victory for Biden in the battleground state during a rematch with Trump in November may prove to be difficult.

A Wall Street poll conducted from March 17 to 24, found that 57 percent of Black men across seven swing states favor Biden to Trump. This is a dramatic shift from the 87 percent of Black men that supported Biden in a 2020 AP VoteCast national poll.

Meanwhile, the number of college-educated Black people supporting Biden has also gone down. Only 71 percent of Black people who went to college said they favor Biden over Trump in the WSJ poll, compared to the 91 percent who supported Biden in 2020, according to the AP VoteCast poll.

The WSJ‘s poll surveyed 218 to 354 registered voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.2 to 6.6 percentage points.

Newsweek reached out to Biden’s campaign via email for comment.

Mark Weaver, a GOP consultant and election law attorney, told Newsweek via email, “Recent polling showing a record number of Black men who intend to vote for the Republican presidential committee has resulted in full blown panic and maybe even day drinking at the Democratic National Committee. Joe Biden’s speaking schedule is being adjusted to dislodge that political reality.”

Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said that Biden has to address two issues with Black voters—civil rights and the economy.

“Since we will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the president should warn African Americans that Trump and the GOP would turn back the clock on race relations,” Bannon told Newsweek in an email. “He should also remind the audience of the millions of jobs that the economy has created on his watch. African Americans have suffered from inflation so the president should channel [Senator] Bernie Sanders and skewer the big grocery chains like Publix which have reaped grotesque profits while the public pays through the nose.”

At the White House on Thursday, Biden met with plaintiffs and family members involved in the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case that outlawed segregation in public schools.

Meanwhile, Republican strategist Jason Cabel Roe, who worked on Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, and Bob Dole’s presidential campaigns, told Newsweek via email: “There’s no question that Biden is hemorrhaging Black voters, particularly men. There’s a lot of reasons but I think the underlying reason is the Black community is tired of being taken for granted by Democrats.”

He added: “There’s this expectation that they fall in line behind Democrats on command and the main talking point is the tired trope of Republicans being racist. It’s such a worn out attack that it is now relatively meaningless and a lot of Black voters feel they were in a better position in the Trump years.”