DETROIT (WXYZ) — President Joe Biden spent Sunday afternoon in Detroit, where he was the keynote speaker at the annual NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. The event was held at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit.
Biden became the first sitting U.S. President since Bill Clinton in 2000 to keynote the event.
WATCH: President Biden speaks at annual NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit
Welcomed to a standing ovation, Presient Biden received a Lifetime Achievement Award and gave the keynote speech in front of a packed house. The dinner is a marquee event for the NAACP Detroit chapter, the largest NAACP chapter in the country.
Biden spent the day focusing on Black voters in key swing states, giving the commencement speech in the morning at the historically Black Morehouse College, an HBCU in Georgia. Then he left for Detroit, where before the dinner he made a stop at Cred Cafe, a local Black owned business on Detroit's East Side.
“Because of your vote, it’s the only reason I'm standing here as President of the United States of America," Biden told the crowd at the dinner.
"It’s going to be critical," event attendee Jamed Duell of Novi said of Michigan's Black voters this election. "We know how close it was in the last election and so forth, and we see what the polls are already saying, so all these swing states are going to be key.”
During his speech, President Biden criticized former President Donald Trump while also touting his own successes, especially for the Black community.
“Our policies are resulting in historic lows of Black unemployment. Black small businesses are starting up at the fastest rate they have in 30 years. We're opening the doors to generational wealth. In fact, the racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years," President Biden said.
Attendees we spoke to at the dinner, strongly supporting his re-election.
“I support him 100%,” said Monica Duell of Novi.
“I'm definitely backing him, because I see what my alternative is and I can't support something like that,” said James Duell. "Everybody needs to get out and vote in this election, our freedoms are at stake.”
“He’s my President and I back him," said Felicia Wiseman of Detroit. "To hear him say all the things he’s done and the things he’s not getting credit for and to be here and have other people hear those things, that's an awesome honor.”
