By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden launched a new attempt to shore up support among African-American voters on Friday, seeking to seal fissures in the Democratic coalition that led him to victory over Republicans. donald trump in 2020.
Biden visited the popular African-American museum in downtown Washington and greeted the audience by declaring: “Black history is American history.”
He and Vice President Kamala Harris will later meet privately at the White House with the Divine Nine, a group of historically black fraternities and fraternities.
Biden met Thursday with families who had relatives involved in the Supreme Court’s landmark May 17, 1954, Brown v. Wade decision. Board of Education, 70 years ago, which led to the desegregation of schools.
“We learn best when we learn together,” Biden said at the museum.
It all leads up to Biden’s commencement address on Sunday at Morehouse College in Atlanta, a historically black school that was the alma mater of slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
A New York Times/Siena College poll released earlier this week found that Trump won 20% of the black vote, a sign that he has made inroads with a bloc of voters that voted overwhelmingly Democratic.
Biden singled out Trump and other Republicans for attacking programs aimed at improving diversity, equity and inclusion.
Biden joined Atlanta radio host Darian “Big Tigger” Morgan on Wednesday and delivered harsh criticism of Trump, the former president who is trying to win back the office in the Nov. 5 election.
“Look, Trump has harmed black people every chance he gets,” Biden said. “Black unemployment and insurance rates have risen under Trump. 19, leaving Black people dead and Black-owned businesses closed.”
Some Morehouse faculty members and students wanted the college to withdraw its invitation to Biden due to his administration’s strong support for Israel’s war in Gaza, where the death toll has risen to more than 35,000. But the White House said the visit would go ahead on Sunday as planned.
Biden has taken actions that benefit Black Americans, such as expanding access to health care coverage, and promoted economic gains that have led to record black unemployment rates and the expansion of the child tax credit, which has helped cut child poverty in half in 2021.
Opinion polls show the Nov. 5 election appears to be a tight race between Biden and Trump, making turnout among Black Americans — who comprise sizable populations in key states like Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — an aspect crucial to Biden’s path to victory.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland, editing by Franklin Paul and Doina Chiacu)
