PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — President Joe Biden announced Monday $1.3 billion in new money for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, bringing total federal funding to a record $17 billion during his term. The institutions, in turn, have done an outsized job of diversifying professions and creating economic mobility.
“Institutions grounded in the belief that every American of every race should have a fair and equal chance to go as far as their God-given talent will take them. That’s who we are, that’s who we stand for,” Biden said at the annual HBCU conference in Philadelphia.
That principle, he said though, is under attack.
“Books are being banned, history’s being erased, HBCUs have received bomb threats.”
He called for a stop to such attacks and also condemned the apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump on Sunday.
“There is no place for political violence in America,” he said. “In America, we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box, not at the end of a gun.”
Now that the president isn’t campaigning, he let down his hair a bit — as when he boasted of creating a working group of the Divine Nine Black sororities and fraternities.
“I may be a white boy but I ain’t stupid.”