President Biden will take on the role of commencement speaker at Morehouse College in Georgia, a move that places the Democrat in the limelight at one of the nation’s top historically Black campuses for an entire year as he aims to bolster the racially varied coalition that propelled him to the Oval Office. The White House confirmed on Tuesday that Biden would be speaking at the alma mater of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. on May 19 before addressing the graduating class at the United States Military Academy at West Point on May 25.
Polls have indicated that Biden has work to do to garner the same levels of Black support they achieved in 2020, especially among younger voters, and his appearance at Morehouse could face some form of protest. NBC News has reported that administrators are concerned that some faculty and students might organize demonstrations around Biden’s visit. Biden has encountered an increasing number of protests this year, primarily from progressives who assert that he is too supportive of Israel in its conflict with Hamas.
Biden’s speech will mark the second consecutive spring that he has addressed the graduating class of a historically Black school. In 2023, the president delivered the commencement address at Howard University, the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris, the first nonwhite woman to hold that office. Morehouse, a private all-male institution that is part of the multi-campus Atlanta University Center, also counts Senator Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, among its alumni. Warnock welcomed Biden’s selection, downplaying any potential dissatisfaction within the Morehouse community.
“I could not be more thrilled and honored to see President Biden return to our great state,” Warnock said in a statement. “I know the president will have a timely, poignant, forward-looking message for the men of Morehouse.”
Even a modest decline in Black voter turnout could result in Biden losing several states to the former President in a rematch. Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia was less than 12,000 votes out of approximately 5 million ballots cast. The combined enrollment at Morehouse and its neighboring institutions that constitute the Atlanta University Center is roughly 9,000 students.
Biden’s lead in Wisconsin, where Black voters in the greater Milwaukee area are a cornerstone of Democrats’ statewide vote totals, was less than 21,000 votes. The president had more comfortable margins in Michigan and Pennsylvania but still cannot afford to lose Black support across the metro areas of Detroit and Philadelphia.
Among states that Trump won, Biden has set his sights on North Carolina, which has a significant Black college student population. Trump’s margin of victory in the state was approximately 75,000 votes.
The administration and reelection campaign have targeted HBCUs since Biden assumed office in January 2021. Harris and Cabinet members have spoken on several campuses, highlighting, among other policy accomplishments and priorities, increased federal funding for HBCUs; Biden’s efforts to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower and increase Pell Grants for low-income students; energy investments to combat the climate crisis; and Democrats’ support for abortion rights and decriminalizing marijuana possession.
Reflecting the nation’s overall racial disparities in income and net worth, Black college students are disproportionately reliant on Pell Grants, which typically cover only a fraction of total college costs, and student loans. According to data from the Federal Reserve, approximately one in three Black households has student loan debt, compared to about one in five white households. Additionally, the average Black borrower carries approximately $10,000 more in debt than the average white borrower. Federal statistics further indicate that about 60% of Black undergraduates receive Pell Grants, compared to about 40% of the overall undergraduate population and a third of white students.
Following the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished chattel slavery, most historically Black colleges and universities, both state-affiliated and private, were established. In the post-war era, most established white campuses, particularly in the Old Confederacy, either denied admission to Black applicants altogether or, in the case of many northern schools, admitted only a few Black students. Morehouse was founded in 1867, and Spelman College, its neighboring private all-women’s school, was established in 1881. Meanwhile, the University of Georgia, the state’s flagship public university, received its charter in 1785, more than three years before the U.S. Constitution was ratified. However, UGA did not enroll Black students until 1961, when Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter were admitted under a federal court order. Biden’s undergraduate alma mater, the University of Delaware, traces its origins to 1743 and began classes in its modern form in 1867. The university did not integrate to include any Black students until 1948, when the 81-year-old president was 6 years old.
