Biden plans Detroit visit to speak at NAACP dinner
Washington — Democratic President Joe Biden will return to Michigan this month to be the keynote speaker for the NAACP Detroit Branch's 69th annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit.
The NAACP also will honor Biden with the James Weldon Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award, the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP Detroit Branch, announced at a Wednesday press conference. U.S. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, also will receive the organization's Presidential Award.
The announcement came ahead of a planned Wednesday night campaign rally in Freeland, about 14 miles northwest of Saginaw, by former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
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"We're about to go into a presidential election, and Rev. Anthony says it best: 'We need to take our souls to the polls,'" said Gary Torgow, a Detroit businessman on the boards of DTE Energy and Huntington Bank, who also serves as chairman for the NAACP dinner. "And that's what the NAACP stands for, more than anything."
The NAACP's annual dinner is scheduled for May 19 at Huntington Place, Detroit's riverfront convention center. It's a massive social gathering and among the region's largest sit-down dinners, hosting approximately 10,000 guests.
The NAACP will also honor Detroit residents including the Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes III, of Friendship-West Baptist Church and Khalilah Spencer, a partner with Honigman LLP, Anthony said. Haynes and Spencer will receive the William Monroe Trotter Freedom and Justice Award and the Ida B. Wells Freedom and Justice Award, respectively.
The NAACP's Great Expectations Award will go to Spain Elementary-Middle School, Renaissance High School and Alexa and Johnnie Turnage, founders of local networking organization Black Tech Saturdays.
Biden spoke at the dinner in 2015, heralding Detroit's comeback following municipal bankruptcy, saying it was on the road to economic recovery.
The event will be the Democratic president's third campaign trip to Michigan this year and his first since March 14 when he made stops in Saginaw, a Democratic stronghold within a bellwether Michigan county, greeting volunteers at a private home in the city's Cathedral District neighborhood before dining with a family at a golf course in Saginaw Township.
Biden was also in Michigan on Feb. 1 when he addressed a crowd of about 200 people at a United Auto Workers hall in Warren and courted Black voters at a sports bar in Harper Woods.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered nearby Biden's meeting that day, decrying the president's continued support for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians to date. Scrutiny over Biden's role in the war has spread across communities in Michigan, spurring more than 100,000 residents to cast "uncommitted" ballots in protest during the Democratic presidential primary in February.
Meanwhile, students at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University established campus encampments demanding their schools divest from Israel, following similar student protests.
NAACP officials are not concerned about public pushback on Biden's presence at the dinner, though they support people's right to peaceful protest, Anthony said.
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Biden's speech to the NAACP in Detroit is part of his campaign's efforts to engage Black voters in battleground Michigan, where turning out Black voters in Detroit and the first-ring suburbs is expected to be key to his running up the score against Trump.
The emphasis on Black voters is reflected in this upcoming and Biden's recent trips to Wayne County and Saginaw County, which have the highest percentage of Black Americans in the state. Biden won each county by 78% and 84% of the vote, respectively, in 2020.
The campaign said it's also been deploying surrogates in Michigan to speak to Black audiences and media about the administration's achievements, including Ohio U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who have visited Detroit-area churches. Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu also campaigned with Black pastors and union workers in Flint Township in February.
Anthony hopes for NAACP dinner attendees to come away from Biden's keynote speech feeling inspired to engage with politics on a personal level, he said.
"Democracy, in our view, is on the table," Anthony said of the 2024 presidential election, adding he felt freedom itself was at stake with issues such as voting rights and women's healthcare. "The bottom line is, I hope people take away that: 'It's really up to me. If I get my pastor, my preacher, my imam, my rabbi to get involved and engage — if I get my block, if I get my school, my sorority, my fraternity, my union shop to get involved, then I will have done my job.'"
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to visit Detroit next week as part of a nationwide economic opportunity tour focused on investing in communities and “building wealth,” the White House said.
Trump has also promised to court Black voters this cycle in cities like Detroit and Atlanta, with Republicans saying they see a chance for the former president to make a dent in Biden and Democrats' historical advantages with voters of color.
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Turnout among Black voters for Biden could taken on greater importance this fall because a number of Arab American and Muslim voters have said they could stay home or vote for other candidates if Biden doesn't shift his policy on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Biden easily won Michigan's presidential primary in February with 81% of the vote, according to unofficial results, though about 13% or 101,600 people registered their protest of the president by voting "uncommitted."
Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points 51%-48% in 2020 over Trump, and the race in the state is expected to be tight again in November.
The NAACP's Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner dates to April 1956 and launched with former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall as the first keynote speaker.
Then-Sen. Kamala Harris of California spoke at the 64th annual dinner in May 2019 when she was running for the Democratic presidential nomination against Biden and others.
Past keynote speakers include former President Bill Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (in 2004 and 2016), Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Vice President Al Gore and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"There's something about Detroit," Anthony said. "It's in the DNA, it's in the spirit of the branch."
mburke@detroitnews.com