ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will be the commencement speaker at Morehouse College in Georgia, giving the Democrat a key spotlight on one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black campuses but potentially exposing him to uncomfortable protests as he seeks reelection against former President Donald Trump.
The White House confirmed Tuesday that Biden would speak May 19 at the alma mater of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and then address the graduating class at the United States Military Academy at West Point on May 25.
The Morehouse announcement has drawn some backlash among the school’s supporters who also are critical of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. That could put the White House and Biden’s reelection campaign in a difficult position as the president works to shore up the racially diverse coalition that propelled him to the Oval Office.
Polls have suggested Biden has work to do generate the same levels of Black support he won in 2020, especially among younger voters. And by Tuesday afternoon some Morehouse alumni were circulating an online letter that condemns the administration’s invitation to Biden and seeking signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind it.
The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, said Biden’s support for Israel effectively supports genocide in Gaza and runs counter to the pacifism that King expressed with his opposition to the Vietnam War.
“In inviting President Biden to campus, the college affirms a cruel standard that complicity in genocide merits no sanction from the institution that produced one of the towering advocates for nonviolence of the twentieth century,” the letter states, emphasizing King’s stance that “war is a hell that diminishes” humanity as a whole. “If the college cannot affirm this noble tradition of justice by rescinding its invitation to President Biden, then the college should reconsider its attachment to Dr. King.”
Separately, NBC News has reported that Morehouse administrators are concerned that some faculty and students might organize demonstrations around Biden’s visit.
Morehouse officials have not responded to a request for comment on its invitation and the reaction.
Earlier Tuesday, Thomas released a statement to BET.com saying the school issued the invitation last September. That would have been before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, spurring the sustained counter-offensive that the Morehouse alumni letter called an act of genocide against Palestinians. Thomas’ letter did not reference anything about the Middle East conflict.
“We eagerly anticipate welcoming President Biden back to The House next month,” Thomas said in his statement. “His presence serves as a reminder of our institution’s enduring legacy and impact, as well as our continued commitment to excellence, progress and positive change.”
Biden has increasingly encountered protests this year from progressives who assert that he is too supportive of Israel in its war with Hamas. The issue has proven vexing for the president. He has long joined the U.S. foreign policy establishment in embracing Israel as an indispensable ally in the Middle East. He also has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for mounting civilian deaths in Gaza and said future U.S. aid to Israel depends on taking steps to protect civilians.
The approach has left Biden with vocal critics to his left and right at a time when he has little margin for error in the battleground states, including Georgia, that are expected to decide his rematch with Trump.
Biden’s speech at Morehouse will mark the second consecutive spring that the president has spoken to the graduating class of a historically Black school. In 2023, he delivered the commencement address at Howard University. The Washington, D.C., school is the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris, the first nonwhite woman to hold that office. Morehouse, a private all-male school that is part of the multi-campus Atlanta University Center, also is the alma mater of Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator.
Warnock also sidestepped any consternation on campus or among his fellow alumni.
“I could not be more thrilled and honored to see President Biden return to our great state,” the senator said in a statement. “I know the president will have a timely, poignant, forward-looking message for the men of Morehouse.”
Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes over Trump out of about 5 million ballots cast. The combined enrollment at Morehouse and its adjoining schools that make up the Atlanta University Center is about 9,000 students. Biden’s margin in Wisconsin was less than 21,000 votes. The president had more comfortable margins in Michigan and Pennsylvania but cannot afford to lose Black support across the metro areas of Detroit and Philadelphia.
Among states Trump won, Biden is targeting North Carolina, which has a notable Black college student population. Trump’s margin there was about 75,000 votes.
The administration has targeted HBCUs since Biden took office in January 2021. Harris and Cabinet members have spoken on several campuses. Among other policy achievements and priorities, the White House touts increases in federal money support for HBCUs; Biden’s efforts to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan burden 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.
Warnock, in his reaction to Biden’s invitation, played up his work with the president “to address the high costs of higher education.”
Reflecting the nation’s overall racial gaps in income and net worth, Black college students are disproportionately dependent on Pell Grants, which typically cover only a fraction of college costs, and student loans. According to Federal Reserve data, about 1 out of 3 Black households has student loan debt, compared to about 1 in 5 white households. The average Black borrower also is carrying about $10,000 more in debt than the average white borrower. Additionally, federal statistics show about 60% of Black undergraduates receive Pell Grants, compared to about 40% of the overall undergraduate population and a third of white students.
Most historically Black colleges and universities — state-affiliated and private — were founded in the years after the end of the Civil War and chattel slavery. Most established white campuses in that post-war era, especially in the Old Confederacy, 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. Spelman College, its adjacent private all-women’s school, was founded in 1881. The University of Georgia, the state’s flagship public university, meanwhile, was chartered in 1785, more than three years before the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Yet UGA did not serve Black students until Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter enrolled under a federal court order in 1961.
Biden’s undergraduate alma mater, the University of Delaware, traces its roots to 1743, and its modern iteration began classes in 1867. The university did not include any Black student until 1948, when the 81-year-old president was 6 years old.
Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Darren Sands contributed.
