Delaware State University refuted Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s claim that he “got started out” at the historically black college.
Back in October 2019, Biden made the claim at historic Wilson High School in Florence, founded in 1866 by the Freedmen’s Bureau for black children seeking an education.
“I got started out of an HBCU, Delaware State — now, I don’t want to hear anything negative about Delaware State,” Biden told the audience just before the South Carolina Democratic primary. “They’re my folks.”
But Carlos Holmes, director of news service for Delaware State, said Biden was never a student there, although he made appearances twice on campus for commencement speeches. The university is on of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
“Vice President Biden did not attend DSU,” Holmes told The Washington Times in an email. “However he was the Commencement keynote speaker in 2003 and [2016], and during the former he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree.”
The university, founded in 1891 as the State College for Colored Students, is about 40 miles south of the University of Delaware, where Biden graduated in 1965 with a double major in political science and history. In Biden’s 2007 memoir, “Promises to Keep,” he details his time at Archmere Academy, a private Catholic school in Clayton, Delaware, to his enrollment as a freshman at the University of Delaware, but never mentions Delaware State University. Read more…
