politics
ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden told Morehouse College graduates in his commencement address Sunday that he heard their voices of protest against the Israel-Hamas war and that the scenes from the conflict in Gaza were heartbreaking.
“I support peaceful, nonviolent protest,” he said to students on the all-male, traditionally black college, a few of whom wore keffiyeh scarves around their shoulders over their black graduation robes. “Their voices should be heard, and I promise you that I hear them.”
The president said there’s a “humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is why I have called for an immediate ceasefire to end the fighting” and produce home the hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The comments near the top of his address, by which he also reflected on American democracy and his role in protecting it, were probably the most direct acknowledgment for U.S. students of the campus protests which have swept the country.
“It is one of the most difficult and complicated problems in the world,” Biden told the graduates. “There is nothing simple about it. I know this upsets and frustrates many of you, including my family. But most of all, I know it will break your heart. Mine is breaking too.”
The speech — and a speech scheduled later Sunday in Detroit — is a component of a series of outreach to Black voters by the president, who has seen his support amongst those voters wane since their strong support propelled him to the Oval Office in 2020 helped.
Biden devoted much of his address to problems at home. He condemned Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and noted that the category of 2024 began college within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd. Biden said it's natural for her and others to query whether the democracy “you hear about is actually working for you.”
“When black men are killed in the streets. “What is democracy?” he asked. “The trail of broken promises that still leaves Black communities behind. What is democracy? When you have to be ten times better than everyone else to get a fair chance.”
Protests against the war have thrown America's universities into turmoil. Columbia University has canceled its most important commencement ceremony. At Morehouse, the announcement that Biden can be the commencement speaker sparked some backlash amongst faculty and those that oppose the president's war-making. Some Morehouse alumni circulated a letter online condemning administrators for inviting Biden and asking for signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to retract 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 famous alumnus.
The Hamas attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people. The Israeli offensive has killed greater than 35,000 Palestinians within the Gaza Strip, in response to the territory's health authorities.
But ultimately there have been no major disruptions to the event and the applause for his remarks remained subdued. At least seven graduates and one faculty member sat supine during Biden's address, and one other student wrapped himself in a Palestinian flag. Demonstrators carried signs near the ceremony that read “Liberate Palestine,” “Save the Children” and “Ceasefire Now,” while police on bicycles kept watch.
As he spoke, scientists on the stage behind the president unfurled a Congolese flag. The African country is mired in civil war, and lots of racial justice advocates have called for more attention to the conflict and American help to finish the violence.
DeAngelo valedictorian Jeremiah Fletcher said at the top of his speech that it was his duty to speak concerning the war in Gaza and that it was vital to acknowledge that each Palestinians and Israelis had suffered.
“From the comfort of our homes, we are watching as unprecedented numbers of civilians mourn the loss of men, women and children while demanding the release of all hostages,” he said. “It is my position as a Morehouse man, indeed as a human being, to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”
Biden stood and shook his hand after Fletcher finished.
Kingsley John, a senior, said, “The temperature on campus was to be expected since the President of the United States came and spoke.” John said he was in “solidarity” together with his classmate and Biden “seemed thoughtful and to be open to feedback.”
The college also awarded Biden an honorary doctorate. After accepting the honour, Biden joked, “I'm not going home,” as chants of “four more years” rang out from the audience before he left the stage. He was on his approach to Detroit to talk at an NAACP dinner.
Georgia and Michigan are among the many few states that can help resolve the rematch between Biden and Trump, expected in November. Biden narrowly won Georgia and Michigan in 2020 and wishes to achieve this again, buoyed by high Black voter turnout in each cities.
Biden spent the top 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.
In Detroit, Biden planned to go to a Black-owned small business before delivering the keynote address on the NAACP's Freedom Fund dinner, which traditionally draws hundreds of attendees. The speech gives Biden a probability to succeed in hundreds of individuals in Wayne County, an area that has voted overwhelmingly Democratic prior to now but has shown signs of resistance to his re-election.
Wayne County can also be home to certainly one of the biggest Arab-American populations within the country, predominantly in the town of Dearborn. Leaders there have been on the forefront of a “leagueless” effort that garnered over 100,000 votes within the state’s Democratic primary and spread across the country.
A protest and march against Biden's visit was planned in Dearborn. Another protest was expected on the dinner venue.
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