“Biden was for civil rights when civil rights wasn’t cool” — state representative Fletcher Smith, a member of South Carolina’s Legislative Black Caucus.
In the summer of 1962, when he was 19, Biden took a job as a life guard at a public pool near a housing project. He was the only white life guard among a dozen inner city African Americans who were all students at HBCUs.
One of the reasons Biden wanted to work at that pool was because he wanted exposure to people who were different from him. As a new adult, he wanted to take things in his own hands and open up his world and his life to people that he didn’t know as a kid. That is Biden — he always wants to learn and grow.
Biden became friends with the other life guards and, as he hoped, he learned from them. For example, Biden learned that, when they traveled in the south, they took gas cans with them because they couldn’t stop at most gas stations.
The summer was a changing point for Biden. “It was a real awakening for me” he later said “ every day, it seemed to me, black people got subtle and not so subtle reminders that they didn’t quite belong in America. It was a dozen small cuts a day.”
What he learned that summer led Biden to participate in marches to desegregate movie theaters in Wilmington.
After law school, he became a public defender whose clients were nearly all African Americans from Wilmington’s East Side.
When he arrived in the Senate in 1973, he met with Mississippi Senator Stennis — a staunch segregationist. When Stennis asked him why he joined the senate Biden said “Civil rights, sir.” Biden was always willing to reach out and listen to anyone who was willing to talk to him. But he has also always been firm about who he is and what he stands for.
Throughout his career, Biden supported black judges, rejected judges who were not progressive enough, and defended civil rights legislation.
Joe Biden will be a great president
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This is Day 39 in my series 100 Days of Loving Joe Biden
Did you miss any of the 100 days? Here are links for all of them:
Day 1: Biden’s Tax Plan
Day 2: Biden and Gay Marriage
Day 3: Biden’s FDR Sized presidency
Day 4: Biden is a mensch
Day 5: Biden has a Covid-19 plan
Day 6: Biden ran the Obama economic recovery
Day 7: Biden’s Housing Plan
Day 8: Biden knows love and commitment
Day 9: Biden knows exactly who Republicans are
Day 10: Biden understands America
Day 11: Biden will bring smart, progressive policies to help Americans
Day 12: Biden has felt pain and found empathy
Day 13: Biden and the Violence Against Women Act
Day 14: Biden was endorsed by John Lewis
Day 15: Biden will protect teacher’s unions
Day 16: Biden will be a steady hand in the White House
Day 17: Biden cares about people in the dawn and twilight of life
Day 18 Biden has a great economic plan
Day 19: Biden would yank the Keystone XL Pipeline permit
Day 20: Biden has plans to help Americans with disabilities
Day 21: Biden sponsored the very first climate bill when in the senate
Day 22: Biden is a person of great character
Day 23: Biden has a great plan for saving the planet
Day 24: Biden has a great healthcare plan
Day 25: Biden will increase housing equality
Day 26: Biden loves dogs
Day 27: Biden has foreign policy swag
Day 28: Biden will work to increase the minimum wage to $15
Day 29: Biden will stand against gun violence
Day 30: Biden will protect, empower, and expand unions
Day 31: Biden knows commitment, love, and patience
Day 32: Biden is a person of faith
Day 33: Biden will listen to experts
Day 34: Biden will protect and expand social security
Day 35: Biden picked Kamala Harris
Day 36: Biden has an expansive plan to empower Latinos
Day 37: Biden will address income inequality in his economic agenda
Day 38: Biden will protect at risk communities from climate change
Day 39: Biden has great pro-worker plans for his presidency
