DETROIT (WWJ) — Pro-Palestinian groups gathered outside Huntington Place Sunday afternoon to protest President Joe Biden’s speech at the NAACP Detroit Branch’s annual Fight For Freedom Dinner.
As campaign season begins to heat up, Biden delivered a commencement address Sunday evening at Morehouse College in Atlanta before making his way to Detroit for the dinner.
There was a large police presence outside the convention center where an estimated 10,000 people would gather to hear Biden speak.
Those headed into the event had to make their way past more than 200 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the building who were waving Palestinian flags, holding signs and chanting in protest of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
WWJ’s Darrylin Horne reported police officers monitoring the protest detained at least one person. It was not immediately clear why.
“He is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Palestine, in Gaza and the West Bank and this has to stop now,” said Kate Stenvig, an organizer of the protests.
"Say it loud, say it clear, Biden we don't want you here" was one of many refrains chanted by the crowd outside of Huntington Place, along with "free, free Palestine" and "Genocide Joe."
Earlier Sunday Biden acknowledged the growing number of protests on college campuses across the country, telling the Morehouse graduates that “he heard their voices of protest and that scenes from the conflict in Gaza break his heart, too,” according to the Associated Press.
“I support peaceful nonviolent protest," he told students at the all-male college, some of whom wore Palestinian scarves known as keffiyehs around their shoulders on top of their black graduation gowns, the AP reported. "Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them.”
The AP reported that Biden said there's a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and "that's why I've called for an immediate cease-fire to stop the fighting" and bring home hostages still being held by Hamas after its militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Speaking to a sold out crowd at the NAACP dinner, President Biden encourages voters to re-elect him in November.
"You're the reason Donald Trump is the defeated former president, and you're the reason Dona; Trump's going to be a loser again," Biden said, to cheers from the audience. "Re-elect Kamala and me, and a Democratic Congress, and we will help to NAACP. We will sign the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, and make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again."
The NAACP president Biden with a lifetime achievement award.
There were also protests Sunday in Dearborn, home to one of the largest Arab-American populations in the U.S. Earlier this year leaders in Dearborn led an effort to vote “uncommitted” in the primary election as a way to voice displeasure with Biden and the Democratic Party.