ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will engage with college students most directly since entering the university when he delivers the commencement address at Morehouse College. israel-hamas war It is at the center of black politics and culture.
Morehouse is located in Atlanta, the largest city in Georgia, the battleground state that Biden took over from then-President Donald Trump four years ago. Biden’s speech Sunday comes as Democrats seek to tap into an important and symbolic electorate of young black men and repair the diverse coalition that put him in the White House.
announcement The speech last month sparked peaceful protests and calls for university officials to cancel it over Biden’s response to the war between Israel and Hamas. Some students at Morehouse and other historically black campuses in Atlanta have vocally opposed Biden and the decision to let him speak, saying it reflects his nervousness. The faces of many communities of color and young voters nationwide.
Morehouse President David Thomas said in an interview that the emotion surrounding the speech made Biden’s speech even more important.
“In many ways, these are the moments when Morehouse was born,” he said. “This country needs a place to hold the tensions that threaten to divide us. If Morehouse can’t hold those tensions, no place can.”
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The speech comes at a critical time for Biden. general election rematch against Republican Trump. Biden is lagging behind both Black voters and people under 30, who were key to his narrow 2020 victory in several battleground states, including Georgia.
A poll conducted in March by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 55% of black adults approve of the way Biden is handling his job as president, well below the number early in his presidency. Overall, 32% of 18- to 29-year-olds supported it in the same poll.
“This is a global catastrophe in Gaza, and for Joe Biden to pander to our votes is political blackface,” Morehouse sophomore Anwar Karim said, calling Thomas and school trustees He urged Biden to rescind his invitation.
Recent scenes on American campuses reflect the opposition of many young voters to Israeli aggression in Gaza. Biden has supported Israel since October 7, when Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds hostage. transportation of weapons Biden has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tactics despite insisting on a ceasefire with the US, a longtime ally, as the death toll in the Gaza Strip exceeds 35,000. Most of them are women and children.
Many young blacks are aware of the Palestinian cause and sometimes draw parallels between Israeli rule in the Palestinian territories and the now-defunct apartheid system in South Africa and the abolished Jim Crow laws in the United States. Israel rejects the claim that its legal system for Palestinians is a component of apartheid.
“I think it’s in his own interest if the president doesn’t get away with it, especially considering the audience and the people that he’s directly addressing,” Thomas said.
Sunday’s speech concludes four days in which Biden will focus on outreach to the Black community.On Thursday, Biden met in private Together with the plaintiffs Brown v. Board of Education A lawsuit that prohibited legal segregation in American public schools. The next day, Biden is scheduled to speak at an NAACP rally commemorating the 70th anniversary of the landmark decision.
Former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, a longtime Biden ally who helped mediate Biden’s speech at Morehouse, said he understands the students’ concerns, but believes Biden is putting pressure on Netanyahu. He emphasized that he supports a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. Meanwhile, President Trump effectively abandoned the long-held US position and said Israel should “end the matter” in the Gaza Strip.
“That’s not part of the conversation,” Richmond said.
The controversy over Biden’s speech at Morehouse reflected underlying tensions at the historically black college, run by administrators dedicated to social justice and Black advancement and committed to maintaining order.
“We sometimes seem like a very conservative organization,” Thomas said. “On the one hand, institutions have to be the stable objects that we are in the world with today.”
But he added that the university’s long-term purpose is “to support students in taking action to create a better world.”
The backlash began even before Mr. Thomas publicly announced Mr. Biden’s arrival. Teachers sent a letter of concern to leadership and urged an online town hall. Alumni gathered hundreds of signatures calling on Thomas to rescind Biden’s invitation. The petition argued that the invitation ran counter to the pacifism expressed by Morehouse alumnus Martin Luther King Jr. when he opposed the Vietnam War.
Some students point out that leaders at Morehouse and other HBCUs did not always support Dr. King and other civil rights activists who are revered today. For example, Morehouse arrested actor Samuel L. Jackson in 1969 after he and other students detained Morehouse trustees, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s father, in a campus building as part of demands for curriculum changes and more black trustees. was expelled from school.
Students recently organized two protests across Atlanta University Center (AUC), a consortium of historically black institutions in Atlanta that includes Morehouse. There were also chants of “Joe Biden, stop it!” “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” he added, a taunt aimed at Thomas.
“Our institutions are supporting genocide and turning a blind eye,” said Spelman College student Nyla Brody, a member of AUC. Brody said Biden’s Israel policy should be seen in the broader context of U.S. foreign policy and domestic police violence against Black Americans, she argued.
“I feel very positive about graduating,” Thomas said, noting that “not one” of Morehouse’s seniors, of which there are about 500 at the all-boys private school, declined to participate. “That doesn’t mean the sentiment about what’s happening in Gaza doesn’t resonate with people in our community,” Thomas said.
Mr. Thomas met privately with the students, as well as several board members. The Morehouse Alumni Association hosted a student town hall that included at least one veteran of the Atlanta Student Movement, a civil rights-era organization.
However, there was a consistent message. Not inviting the President of the United States was not an option. When the students asked about donations invested in Israeli and U.S. defense contractors, they said they were told the amounts involved were insignificant and that they were in mutual funds worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“I think people are excited” about Biden’s appearance, said Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Kings Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Warnock said Biden is in a “great position” to speak on the issue. student debt reliefincreased federal support for HBCUs and other outcomes.
HBCUs are not subject to the same law enforcement crackdowns as Columbia University in New York City or the University of California, Los Angeles. But Morehouse and AUC have seen peaceful demonstrations, petitions, and private meetings between campus officials.Xavier University, a historically black college in Louisiana, has canceled its graduation ceremony. Invitation letter from UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-GreenfieldHe cited the students’ desire to “enjoy a graduation ceremony without confusion.”
It remains to be seen whether Morehouse graduates and other students will protest Biden or disrupt the ceremony. Student protest leaders said they were unaware of any plans to hold a demonstration indoors during the opening ceremony.
Morehouse President Thomas promised no students would be sanctioned for commencement protests that “do not disrupt the ceremony.”
But he also vowed to end the program early if chaos escalates.
“We will not do anything that will attract national media attention on the Morehouse campus,” he said. “I will not do anything that would lead to a situation where I would be removed from the ceremony.”
