Biden to Deliver Commencement Speech at South Carolina State University on Friday
From The State …
President Joe Biden will visit South Carolina this coming week, his first trip back to the Palmetto State since he was elected president in November 2020.
The White House confirmed Biden will travel to Orangeburg County Friday to give the December commencement speech at South Carolina State University, the state’s only public four-year historically Black college. The university said Biden will speak at 10 a.m., at the Smith Hammond Middleton Memorial Center.
“The South Carolina State University family is honored and grateful to host President Biden when he addresses our graduates as they set a course for their futures,” interim university President Alexander Conyers said in a statement Saturday. “Our students will no doubt remember his words for the rest of their lives. This is indeed a privilege for all here at SC State.”
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, was originally scheduled to give the graduation address, but invited the president to speak, the university said. Clyburn, a 1961 graduate of S.C. State, will instead march with the graduating class and receive his own degree, because the university did not hold December commencement ceremonies when Clyburn graduated and he received his degree by mail.