Biden says 'black history is American history' as he pins hopes on African-American voters despite polls showing his support waning

President Joe Biden on Friday called black history 'American history as he courts African-American voters pivotal to his re-election bid.

'Black history is American history, we have a whole group out there trying to rewrite history, trying to erase history,' Biden said at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. 

He was there to mark the 70th anniversary of the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The decision banned segregation in public schools.

Seventy years ago, you changed the world,' Biden told the attendees. 

'The Brown decision proves a simple idea: We learn better when we learn together,' he noted. 

In his remarks, Biden touted all he has done for the black community, including helping minority businesses, supporting black education and helping decrease black poverty rates. 

He also pointed out he has a black vice president: Kamala Harris. 

'Black history is American history,' President Joe Biden said

Biden is ramping up his appeal to black voters, a core group that helped elect him, as they are showing growing disenchantment with him and his presidency.

In addition to his speech on Friday, he and Harris will meet with the leaders of the 'Divine Nine,' the historically Black sororities and fraternities of which Harris is a member of one.

The president also has given eleven interviews this year alone to black radio hosts.

Biden will spend the weekend courting this vital group of core supporters, who helped him win the Democratic nomination and the White House in the 2020 election.

The main event will be his commencement address at Morehouse University on Sunday.

The prestigious, all-male historically Black college is the alma mater of several prominent black Americans including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., actor Samuel Jackson, and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.

'I got more Morehouse men in my administration than Morehouse,' Biden joked on Friday. 

Biden's courtship began on Thursday, when he hosted plaintiffs from the historic case Brown vs. the Board of Education at the White House. 

On Saturday, he'll meet with black voters in Georgia.

Biden is set to deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta on Sunday. Georgia is one several key swing states that Biden won over Trump in 2020. He will receive an honorary degree from the school.

There are worries about protests. Some Morehouse faculty and students oppose U.S. support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

Steve Benjamin, a White House senior adviser and director of public engagement, told reporters on Thursday that Biden believed in free speech, 'and that right to free speech extends to even those who wish to protest and he respects that, and he makes it a point to lean in when there are protesters in the same space.'

On Sunday evening the president will be in Detroit to give the keynote speech at an NAACP event. He'll also visit a locally-owned black-business.

Audience members at the National Museum of African American History and Culture listen to President Joe Biden's speech

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, left, greets President Joe Biden

His re-election campaign has reason to be worried.

Polls show that while Biden still leads Republican rival Donald Trump in support among black voters his level of support is down sharply compared to four years ago.

'He has to answer two questions: Why go out and bother to vote, which is almost the same question of what's in it for me for voters,' Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN. 'And then he has to answer the Janet Jackson test of – 'What have you done for me lately?'

A poll from the New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer, released earlier this week, found Biden leading Trump among black voters, 63 percent to 23 percent. But that's more than 20 points down from the 87 percent of black voters who voted for Biden in 2020.

Additionally, a Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted last month found that fewer black Americans plan to vote in November.

The poll of more than 1,300 black adults finds that 62 percent of them say they're 'absolutely certain to vote,' down from 74 percent in June 2020. The 12-percentage-point drop outpaces the four-point drop among Americans overall, from 72 percent to 68 percent.

Young black voters in particular are unenthused about Biden. Overall, nearly 1 in 5 Black voters who turned out for Biden in 2020 say they are less than certain about whether they will vote at all this year.

The campaign is ramping up their efforts and bringing in big names to court black voters on Biden's behalf.

Congressman Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina who is one of the most well-known and beloved black politicians in the country, will travel to numerous swing states later this year on the president's behalf.

His stops include Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Ohio.

Clyburn, a civil rights icon, essentially handed Biden the Democratic nomination four years ago when he helped Biden win the South Carolina presidential primary.

People watch the motorcade carrying President Joe Biden near the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Congressman Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, will go campaign for President Biden in swing states - above Clyburn with Biden at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston

A lengthy memo from Biden's re-election campaign on Friday outlines all that the president and vice president have done for the black community.

'While the Black unemployment rate skyrocketed under Trump, the Biden-Harris administration helped to create over 2.5 million jobs for Black workers, resulting in record low Black unemployment,' writes Trey Baker, a senior adviser to the campaign.

Baker also points to the number of forgiven student loans that went to the black community and that black child poverty was cut in half.

'This campaign will not take a single voter for granted. We are not, and will not, parachute into these communities at the last minute, expecting their vote. Every day, from now until election day, we will continue working diligently to ensure that come November, Black voters send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House,' he noted.