President Joe Biden called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza at a highly anticipated commencement address at Morehouse College that involved no obvious disruptions to the speech as Biden gave his first remarks on a college campus since protests swept campuses across the country, condemning Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza.
Biden spoke at the historically Black university's commencement ceremony on Sunday.
Biden said his administration is “working around the clock” on a deal to end the conflict in Gaza and push for a two-state solution for the future.
No major protests or disruptions took place while the president mentioned the conflict.
Before Biden spoke, valedictorian speaker DeAngelo Fletcher used the podium to directly address the ongoing conflict: “It is my stance as a Morehouse man, nay, as a human being, to call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.”
Biden joined in the applause after Fletcher’s statement, and shook the graduate’s hand after he left the stage.
Biden’s commencement address comes as a wave of student walkouts, protests and other disruptions have hit the 2024 college graduation season. In April, pro-Palestinian protest encampments sprung up on college campuses across the nation, demanding universities divest from companies doing business with ties to Israel and opposing the ongoing war in Gaza. Many of these encampments ended violently after universities called in police to take down tents and arrest protesters. When Biden was announced as commencement speaker at the historically Black Morehouse College, some students demanded the university rescind the invitation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week. Morehouse declined to rescind the invite and went on with the ceremony as scheduled. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Morehouse College President David A. Thomas said the university might end the ceremony immediately if any “disruptive behavior” takes place, such as shouting while the president speaks. “I have also made a decision that we will also not ask police to take individuals out of commencement in zip ties. If faced with the choice, I will cease the ceremonies on the spot If we were to reach that position,” Thomas said.
$16 billion. That’s how much Biden promised in additional investment to HBCUs, an investment he announced last week, that got rapturous applause from the Morehouse graduates and faculty. Biden noted that most historically black universities do not have the same access to endowments like other private colleges.
Biden also criticized the fact that some Americans are claiming “immigrants poison the blood of our country”—directly quoting former President Trump, who first said the line in December.
Biden is not the first president to speak at Morehouse College. Then-President Barack Obama gave the commencement address at the prestigious HBCU in 2013, while Biden was serving as his vice president. Both presidents spoke about Dr. King, who Biden claimed inspired him to leave a private law firm and become a public defender.
As Biden spoke, a faculty member unfurled a flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, presumably to protest the ongoing conflict in central Africa.