President Joe Biden is expected to deliver the commencement speech at Howard University this month, a historically Black university in Washington. The commencement is scheduled for May 13.
The White House confirmed to CNN that Biden will also give the keynote address at the United States Air Force Academy’s commencement in El Paso County, Colorado, on June 1. He disclosed that appearance last month at the White House when he presented the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy to the Air Force’s football team, the Falcons.
“In a few weeks, I’ll be headed to your home turf for commencement,” the president joked at the time. “You’re going to get stuck with me being your commencement speaker.”
Howard University, Vice President Kamala Harris’ alma mater, has received an ample amount of focus from the Biden administration since the pair took office in 2021. Last month, Harris delivered a fiery speech on abortion rights during a rally on the Howard campus, among other events.
And in January, Howard University became the first historically Black college or university – also known as an HBCU – to partner with the Department of Defense to lead a university-affiliated research center. Howard will receive $12 million per year for five years to fund research, faculty and students, the Defense Department said in a press release. The center is funded by the DOD and the US Air Force.
Biden’s remarks at the minority-serving institution will come less than a month after he announced his 2024 reelection bid, a campaign that will once again focus heavily on turning out Black voters and young voters to the ballot box.
Securing funding for the more than 100 HBCUs in the US has been a prominent feature of Biden’s domestic agenda. Early on, he proposed nearly $45 billion in funding to fix weathered campuses and help modernize the historic…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply