President Joe Biden gave the keynote address at the NAACP Detroit Branch’s 69th Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner Sunday evening in Detroit after engaging in campaign events in the Metro Detroit area throughout the week. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have increased their trips to key battleground states, including Michigan, in preparation for the 2024 presidential election.
Since 1955, the Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner has served as a platform for fundraising and rallying community support for racial justice. In addition, the dinner has historically hosted key community leaders, politicians and activists.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily before the event, Towana Pearson, an attendee and member of Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses of Detroit, emphasized how the Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner has had a lasting positive impact on the Michigan community.
“I believe the NAACP dinner has been a very productive resource,” Pearson said. “It’s been in existence for 69 years now. It has brought the Black community together, as well as our other brothers and sisters who are not African American. It has brought us together to look at the human race as a whole.”
Pearson said she hoped Biden’s appearance at the event would shed light on the political challenges the U.S. is currently facing in the upcoming election.
“I believe President Biden being here today will give a key focus on what it is that we need to look out for the future in regards to the overall governmental issues that we have,” Pearson said. “(Biden) being here as president shows that he has a concern for the Black community and the national NAACP.”
Biden was one of the seven honorees of the night, receiving the James Weldon Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award for his lifetime of service to the U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., was awarded the President’s Award for her work in key Michigan policy areas such as agriculture, clean water and economic development.
Other attendees included various Michigan politicians, including Sen. Gary Peters (D) and U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D), Elissa Slotkin (D), Haley Stevens (D) and Shri Thanedar (D). Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan (D) and key leaders of the Michigan legislature, including House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Sterling Heights, and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, were also present.
During his keynote address, Biden thanked Black voters for their support and highlighted his administration’s achievements, including the $16 billion investment in HBCUs and the expansion of the Affordable Care Act. Biden said his administration aims to improve the economic health of Black communities.
“We’re investing more money than ever in Black families and communities,” Biden said. “We delivered checks to deposit in people’s pockets to reduce Black child poverty. We’re reconnecting Black neighborhoods cut off by old highways and decades of disinvestment, including here in Detroit. Our policies are resulting in historic lows of Black unemployment. Black small businesses are starting up at the fastest rate they have in 30 years. We’re opening the doors to generational wealth. In fact, the racial wealth gap is at its lowest level in 20 years.”
Biden also said his administration’s progress could be jeopardized if former President Donald Trump, presumptive Republican nominee, wins the 2024 presidential election.
“Trump isn’t running to lead America,” Biden said. “He’s running for revenge. But revenge is no way to lead a country. You can’t build a future on revenge. You can’t build better lives through revenge. That’s why I’m running to lead America into the future, a future of promise and hope and possibilities because that’s who we are: a nation of possibilities.”
In an interview with The Daily before the event, Vanessa Johnson, senior executive assistant and office manager at New Detroit, said he hopes people will consider Biden’s appearance in Detroit when they vote in November.
“I’m praying that the community, on all sides, looks at his appearance (in Detroit) and judges it for what it is,” Johnson said. “I’m hoping that people will consider that when they take time to vote and think about the direction of where we should be going, as opposed to what will happen if we don’t choose that direction. Forget about the age; age has nothing to do with that. With age comes wisdom. So, one has to think about all those things, and (Biden) brings that to the table.”
Daily Staff Reporter Akshara Karthik can be reached at karthika@umich.edu.
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