Biden whispered a lot about black-and-white TV. But then Sleepy Joe became a winner
When Joe Biden came to Arlington in January, America was starting to call him Sleepy Joe.
But the Biden who spoke to a national meeting of Black church pastors was Calming Joe.
At a time when his path to the White House seemed like a gravel dead-end road, and when reconciliation with debate critic Kamala Harris seemed almost unthinkable, Biden came to a National Baptist Convention meeting and spoke in a whisper, sounding all of his 77 years.
Yet when he talked about the 1960s — not once but twice mentioning how he watched black-and-white TV — he sounded less like a storyteller and more like a man determined not to relive the scenes of racist white attacks on Black Americans during the civil rights movement.
“Some mornings that I wake up, I wonder whether or not we are living in 2020 or 1920,” he said during worship Jan. 15 at the Arlington Convention Center in what became his only Tarrant County stop of the presidential campaign.
“I hear the voices of intolerance singing the chorus of pain, exclusion and denial. ... I hear the echoes of the not-so-distant past.”
To a roomful of pastors anxious over whether he could deliver a strong message about civil rights and voting rights, Biden rewound his memories of the 1960s and then added: “Hate never goes away. It just hides.”
When he talked about watching black-and-white TV, he was talking about the 1963 Birmingham, Ala., civil-rights protests that were met with racist Commissioner of Public Safety “Bull” Connor’s firehoses and attack dogs.
(At the time, as Richard Ben Cramer wrote in “What it Takes,” Biden was in high school in Delaware. But when a restaurant wouldn’t serve a Black teammate, Joe and the team walked out. Witnesses say he also joined a protest at a segregated Wilmington movie theater.)
In 2020, we don’t often spend time listening to those who remember the 1960s, much less campaigning for them. If you think about it, it’s the same timespan as a 1960 crowd hearing a candidate reminisce about 1900.
But the pastors, many of them known for having the spirit and stage presence to save souls and convert nonbelievers, sat rapt as this quiet older white man told them carefully and deliberately about how his vision for America differed from President Donald Trump’s.
Biden repeated a regular stump speech line about how “we are in a battle for the soul of this nation. The ‘Bull’ Connors of today don’t always stand in the street with firehoses and dogs. They wear very nice suits and wield their power to pass policies that roll back rights, roll back protections ... cut funding for healthcare and education.
“... American history is not a fairy tale. It’s literally a constant battle for the soul of this nation. It’s been a constant push-and-pull between the American ideal that we were all created equal and the harsh reality that racism has torn us apart.”
Then, for the first time in the 20-minute speech, his whisper grew loud.
“The honest truth is, both elements are part of the American character,” he said.
“At our best, [the] American ideal wins out. But it’s never over. It’s always a fight!”
Little did he know.
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 4:20 PM.
