Biden prioritizes black outreach for Brown v. Board anniversary

President Joe Biden commemorated the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling by delivering remarks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

The president’s speech comes as his campaign is placing a concerted effort on courting black voters ahead of the 2024 general election in November. Polls have indicated that while Biden continues to lead former President Donald Trump among black voters, the president’s support from that critical demographic has slipped since entering office in 2021.

“The NAACP and this museum are monuments to the power of black history, and black history is American history,” Biden opened in his remarks before offering a veiled attack against Trump and other Republicans. “We have a whole group of people out there trying to rewrite history, trying to erase history.”

The president continued to tout his administration’s efforts to advance education equity, specifically historic funding levels for historically black colleges and universities, which he called “vital to our nation’s progress.”

“The founders of Morehouse understood something fundamental. Education is linked to freedom because to be free means to have something that no one can ever take away from you, and that’s the power of an education,” he said. “That’s why the Brown decision we commemorate today is so important. The work of building democracy is a possibility of a democracy worthy of our dreams starts with opening the doors of opportunity for everyone without exception, and we can do it.”

This weekend, Biden will travel to Atlanta for a series of events focusing on the black community, culminating in the keynote address at Morehouse College on Sunday. Earlier in the week, the president met with the plaintiffs and family members from Brown v. Board of Education and will host the presidents of the “Divine Nine,” a group of historically black fraternities and sororities, as well on Friday afternoon.

The president also formalized his plans to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance, which the White House has framed as an effort to extend equity to the black community.

Trey Baker, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign, said Friday that they have “been authentic and consistent” in their efforts “to reach black voters and ensure they are aware that no other administration in modern history has delivered for Black American in the way Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have.”

“While the Black unemployment rate skyrocketed under Trump, the Biden-Harris administration helped to create over 2.5 million jobs for Black workers, resulting in record low Black unemployment,” Baker wrote. “Black business ownership is also growing at the fastest pace in 30 years.”

He says the number of “black households owning a business” has doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic and that Biden is rapidly closing the racial wealth gap, most notably by extending $160 billion in student loan debt forgiveness to black borrowers.

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You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.