President Joe Biden | WhiteHouse.gov
President Joe Biden | WhiteHouse.gov
President Joe Biden offered congratulations and words of encouragement as he delivered a commencement address Friday to the South Carolina State University Class of 2021.
Biden, the nation's 46th chief executive, delivered the address at the invitation of Rep. James E. Clyburn, who had been scheduled to deliver the address, according to a SC State news release. Clyburn instead was marching with the graduates during the ceremony, according to the news release.
“Your time here has come during a tumultuous and consequential moment in modern American history, and it has led you to graduate at a real inflection point in history,” Biden said, according to a transcript of his remarks released by the White House. “No graduating class gets to choose the world into which they graduate. Every class enters the history of the nation up to the point that has been written by others.”
U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn
| Wikipedia
Biden, according to the transcript, also noted that few classes enter at a point in history when they have an opportunity to chart the course for the country. He also challenged graduates to meet the moment, as earlier generations did, to help set the direction for the nation over the next decade, which will ultimately determine what the country looks like 50 years from today, according to the transcript, and he called for action on voter rights.
Clyburn did not get to march to receive his degree in 1961, and got to march with the class of 2021, according to the news release. The university, the release noted, did not hold a December commencement ceremony at that time, so Clyburn received his diploma in the mail.
Biden had served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years, representing the state of Delaware, before being elected the 47th vice president of the United States with Barack Obama in 2008, according to the release.
Clyburn, the Majority Whip, is the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. He represents South Carolina’s sixth congressional district, according to the release.
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