Current:Home > ContactBiden marks Brown v. Board of Education anniversary amid concerns over Black support -Lighthouse Finance Hub
Biden marks Brown v. Board of Education anniversary amid concerns over Black support
View
Date:2025-04-14 11:52:50
President Biden marked this week's 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that struck down institutionalized racial segregation in public schools by welcoming plaintiffs and family members in the landmark case to the White House.
The Oval Office visit Thursday to commemorate the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision to desegregate schools comes with Biden stepping up efforts to highlight his administration's commitment to racial equity.
The president courted Black voters in Atlanta and Milwaukee this week with a pair of Black radio interviews in which he promoted his record on jobs, health care and infrastructure and attacked Republican Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden is scheduled Friday to deliver remarks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and — along with Vice President Kamala Harris — meet with the leaders of the Divine Nine, a group of historically Black sororities and fraternities. And the president on Sunday is set to deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College, the historically Black college in Atlanta, and speak at an NAACP gala in Detroit.
During Thursday's visit by litigants and their families, the conversation was largely focused on honoring the plaintiffs and the ongoing battle to bolster education in Black communities, according to the participants.
"He commended them for changing our nation for the better and committed to continue his fight to move us closer to the promise of America," White House senior adviser Stephen Benjamin told reporters following the meeting.
Mr. Biden faces a difficult reelection battle in November and is looking to repeat his 2020 success with Black voters, a key bloc in helping him beat Trump. But the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research's polling from throughout Mr. Biden's time in office reveals a widespread sense of disappointment with his performance as president, even among some of his most stalwart supporters, including Black adults.
- Biden campaign ramps up outreach to Black voters in Wisconsin as some organizers worry about turnout
"I don't accept the premise that there's any erosion of Black support" for Biden, said NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who took part in the Oval Office visit. "This election is not about candidate A vs. candidate B. It's about whether we have a functioning democracy or something less than that."
Among those who took part in the meeting were John Stokes, a Brown plaintiff; Cheryl Brown Henderson, whose father, Oliver Brown, was the lead plaintiff in the Brown case; and Adrienne Jennings Bennett, a plaintiff in Boiling v. Sharpe, which was argued at the same time and outlawed segregation of schools in Washington, DC. Plaintiffs and family members of litigants of five cases that were consolidated into the historic Brown case took part in the meeting.
The Brown decision struck down an 1896 decision that institutionalized racial segregation with so-called "separate but equal" schools for Black and white students, by ruling that such accommodations were anything but equal.
Brown Henderson said one of the meeting participants called on the president to make May 17, the day the decision was delivered, an annual federal holiday. She said Mr. Biden also recognized the courage of the litigants.
"He recognized that back in the fifties and the forties, when Jim Crow was still running rampant, that the folks that you see here were taking a risk when they signed on to be part of this case," she said. "Any time you pushed back on Jim Crow and segregation, you know, your life, your livelihood, your homes, you were taking a risk. He thanked them for taking that risk."
The announcement last month that Mr. Biden had accepted an invitation to deliver the Morehouse graduation address triggered peaceful student protests and calls for the university administration to cancel over the president's handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Mr. Biden in recent days dispatched Benjamin to meet with Morehouse students and faculty.
Benjamin told reporters Thursday that the situation in the Middle East was among the issues he discussed with students and faculty during the visit.
- In:
- NAACP
- Milwaukee
- Joe Biden
- Kamala Harris
- Donald Trump
- Politics
- Education
- Atlanta
veryGood! (59)
Related
- Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
- 2 top Polish military commanders resign in a spat with the defense minister
- Dollars and sense: Can financial literacy help students learn math?
- AP PHOTOS: Soldiers mobilize, mourners bury the dead as battles rage in Israeli-Palestinian war
- Chief beer officer for Yard House: A side gig that comes with a daily swig.
- IMF outlook worsens for a world economy left ‘limping’ by shocks like Russia’s war
- Olympic Gymnast Mary Lou Retton “Fighting For Her Life” With Rare Illness
- Nobel Prize in economics goes to Harvard professor Claudia Goldin for research on workplace gender gap
- Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience
- Starbucks releases PSL varsity jackets, tattoos and Spotify playlist for 20th anniversary
Ranking
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Exxon Mobil executive arrested on sexual assault charge in Texas
- Video game clips and old videos are flooding social media about Israel and Gaza
- Several more people arrested over a far-right German plot to launch a coup and kidnap a minister
- Immigration issues sorted, Guatemala runner Luis Grijalva can now focus solely on sports
- Alex Jones, Ronna McDaniel potential witnesses in Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro’s Georgia trial
- Rep. Santos faces new charges he stole donor IDs, made unauthorized charges to their credit cards
- The former chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board has been arrested for Medicaid fraud
Recommendation
Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
Michigan man wins $2 million from historic Powerball drawing
Finnish president says undersea gas and telecom cables damaged by ‘external activity’
Israel-Hamas war death toll tops 1,500 as Gaza Strip is bombed and gun battles rage for a third day
How breaking emerged from battles in the burning Bronx to the Paris Olympics stage
Lawsuit accuses officials in a Louisiana city of free speech violations aimed at online journalist
NHL season openers: Times, TV, streaming, matchups as Connor Bedard makes debut
Police officials in Paterson sue New Jersey attorney general over state takeover of department