Greenville Leader

President Joe Biden urged South Carolina State University’s Class of 2021 to rise to the challenges presented to them during a commencement address delivered Friday at the Smith Hammond Middleton Memorial Center.

Pointing to his 2020 presidential campaign, which was jump-started by a primary victory in South Carolina, Biden told graduates that anything is possible, according to a White House transcript of his address. 

U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn invited the president to deliver the address for him as he marched with the graduates during the ceremony, according to an SC State news release. 

President Joe Biden | WhiteHouse.gov

“Graduates, I know you’ve already stood to thank your parents and your families, but, you know, the fact is that: Congratulations. You earned it,” Biden said. “You earned every bit of it.  I know it wasn’t easy: remote learning; fearing getting sick from COVID-19 and feeling the pain for those who lost loved ones, and you know people who have lost loved ones; the uncertainty of a devastated economy; the reckoning on race not seen since the ’50s and ’60s.”

Biden also told the graduates that the nation is counting on them to seize the opportunity to make a difference and have a positive impact on the course of the country.  He also used the stage to call for action on voter rights, according to the transcript. 

Moreover, the president told graduates the country is at an inflection point he said could change history, and it is a tremendous opportunity for the class of 2021, according to the transcript. He also noted that they are ready to meet the challenge, the transcript noted, because they are “part of a proud and sacred tradition — an HBCU tradition.”

 As a young graduate in 1961, Clyburn did not get to march to get his degree, receiving it by mail, according to the SC State release. 

The longtime legislator got to march with graduates, according to the news release, which noted that the university did not hold a December commencement ceremony at the time of Clyburn’s graduation.