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THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, North Carolina!  And I’ll get in trouble with my mom looking down in Heaven if I don’t say please excuse my back, I apologize.  (Applause.)  (Inaudible.)

It’s good knowing you — it’s good knowing you have my back.  (Applause.)

Eric, thank you for that introduction.  We had a wonderful time spending time with your sons, Christian and Carter.  They’re going to grow up to be incredible young men.  You would have been really impressed the way they talked about their dad, how informed they were about what was going on.  I was truly impressed.  And I ate two hamburgers.  (Laughter and applause.)

And a special thanks to Roy and Kristin Cooper.  Roy, you’ve been a great governor — (applause) — which makes it all the more important that North Carolina elect a great governor to replace you, Josh Stein.  (Applause.)

And when I’m reelected again with your help, I want you to know that I’m not promising not to take Roy away from North Carolina.  (Applause.)  Whether he’ll come or not, I don’t know.  (Applause.)

And thanks to all the state and local leaders here today, and the great musicians and entertainers who performed earlier.

Folks, let me tell you why I’m here in North Carolina.  I’m here for one —

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  That’s okay. 

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  That’s okay.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m here in North Carolina for one reason: Because I intend to win this state in November — (applause) — and we’re going to see that ha- — I think we are.

And Roy is right.  We win here, we win the election.  (Applause.)

And here’s how we’re going to do it.  We’re going to stand up for the women of America.  (Applause.)  We’re going to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.  (Applause.)  We’re going to stand up for the right to vote.  (Applause.)  And we’re going to stand up for Medicare and Social Security.  (Applause.)  And we’re going to fight for childcare, paid leave, and eldercare.  (Applause.) 

And we’re going to keep lowering the cost of prescription drugs, not just for seniors but for every single American.  (Applause.)  We’re going to keep protecting the Affordable Care Act — (applause) — which is why more than 40 million Americans have health insurance today that didn’t before.  (Applause)

We’re going to protect our children and get the weapons of war off our streets.  (Applause.)  We’re going to provide clean drinking water, affordable high-speed Internet, quality education for every child in America.  (Applause.)

We’re going to secure our border and protect legal immigration.  (Applause.)

And unlike the other guy, we’re going to stand up to dictators like Putin, because — (applause) — America bows to no one — no one — no one ever.  (Applause.)

Folks — and we’re going to keep dealing with the climate crisis.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  Look, and more than — and more than anything, we’re going to preserve, protect, and defend our democracy.  (Applause.)  Because more than anything else, that is what is at stake in America this election — (applause) — your freedom, your democracy.  America itself is at stake.  (Applause.)

Now, folks, I don’t know what you did last night, but I spent 90 stages — 90 minutes on the stage debating the guy who has the morals of an alley cat.  (Laughter and applause.)

Did you see Trump last night?  My guess he set — and I mean this sincerely — a new record for the most lies told in a single debate.  (Applause.) 

He lied about the great economy he created.  He lied about the pandemic he botched, killing millions of people.  (Applause.)  He closed businesses.  He closed schools.  Losing their homes — people all over this country. 

America was flat on its back.  So, I told Trump that he was just one of two presidents in American history who left office with fewer jobs than he started.  Herbert Hoover was the other one.  (Laughter.)  That’s why I call him Donald “Herbert Hoover” Trump.  (Applause.) 

And then he lied about how great he was for veterans.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  But then I told him how he had called a veteran who had given their lives in the country in World War I — he refused to go to the gravesites — he called them “suckers” and “losers.”

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  He tried to deny it.  But let me ask you, are you going to believe a four-star Marine general, his own former chief of staff, John Kelly, who said he said that or the disgraced, defeated, and lying Donald Trump?  (Applause.)

My son was one of those people — not in World War I but in the v- —

Folks, look, how about the fact that 44 —

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more year!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  How about the fact —

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!   

THE PRESIDENT:  That’s okay.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  How about the fact that 40 out of his 44 top advisors, including the vice president, aren’t supporting him this time around?  The people who know him best — 40 of them said, “I will not support the man I worked for this time around.”  It tells you a lot about — the person who knows him.

Look, he lied about how great he was on crime.  I had to remind him that he oversaw a record increase of murder rates in 2020.  And on my watch, violent crime has hit a 50-year low.  There’s more to do, but 50-year low.  (Applause.)

And then, I pointed out that the only convicted criminal on the stage last night was Donald Trump.  (Applause.)

When I’ve thought about his 34 felony convictions, his sexual assault on a woman in a public place, his being fined $400 million for business fraud, I thought to myself, “Donald Trump isn’t just a convicted felon.  Donald Trump is a one-man crime wave.”  (Applause.)  And he’s got more trials — he’s got more trials coming up. 

AUDIENCE:  Lock him up!  Lock him up!  Lock him up!

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, the time for that — (laughs). 

AUDIENCE:  Lock him up!  Lock him up!  Lock him up!

THE PRESIDENT:  Look, the thing that bothers me maybe most about him: He has no respect for women or the law.  He doesn’t. 

And then, his biggest lie.  He lied about how he had nothing to do with the insurrection on January the 6th. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  We all saw with our own eyes.  We watched it on television.  We saw thousands of insurrection attack the Capitol.  We saw police being attacked, the Capitol being ransacked, the mob hunting for Speaker Pelosi, gallows literally set up for Mike Pence.  And then, he told them as he sat in the dining room — the one di- — one — the private dining one door off my Oval Office.  He sat there for three hours watching the TV.  He did not a single thing to stop it — nothing, nothing at all. 

And now —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  And now, he wants to pardon all those convicted criminals. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  But, folks, for all his lies, we did learn some- — we learned some important truths about Donald Trump last night.  We learned he’s still proud of being the person who killed Roe v. Wade. 

We learned —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  No.  We learned he’s still proud about the pain and cruelty he’s inflicted on America’s women.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  We learned he still believes that politicians, not doctors and women, should make decisions about a woman’s health. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  We learned that if he’s elected again and the MAGA Republicans pass a national ban on abortion, he will sign it. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  Donald Trump says he thinks Roe v. Wo- — Roe — overturning Roe v. Wade was a beautiful thing. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  I think it was a nightmare.  (Applause.)  No, I really mean it.  A nightmare. 

And I made it clear again last night: If you elect me and Kamala and you give us a Democratic Congress, we will make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again.  (Applause.) 

He continued to lie.  He said I quadrupled taxes — where the hell has he been? — (laughter) — which is a simple lie.  I didn’t raise the tax on anyone in America that made less than $400,000 a year, and I won’t in my second term either. 

We learned that Trump — (applause) — who had the largest deficit of any president in four years because of the $2 trillion tax cut to the super wealthy — we learned that Trump wants to give another giant tax cut for the very wealthy and the biggest corporations.  This time, $5 trillion — not a joke — $5 trillion.  To pay for it, he’s going to cut Medicare and Social Security.  He’ll cut health care.  They’ll do it all, with millions of working middle-class Americans all paying for another tax cut for the very wealthy. 

Then, to add insult to injury, he wants to raise taxes on the average family $2,500 a year.  What amounts to a new 10 percent sales tax on all products imported in America — that’s his new plan — for food, coffee, candy bars, and so much more.  It’s going to raise the tax on the average family $2,500 a year.

And most dangerously, though, we learned that Donald Trump will not respect this year’s election outcome.  He’s still not — he rejected the last time out. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  No, think about it.  Every court in the nand [land] ruled that it was a fair election.  He’s still denying it, still telling lies.

Three times, Trump was asked last night by the moderators: Would he respect the election results if he lost this time?  Three times, he refused to answer.  Three times. 

Folks, Donald Trump refused to accept the results in 2020, and we all saw what happened on January the 6th.  It’s a direct consequence of that.  It was an international embarrassment. 

By the way, as I go these international meetings — I know every major world leader — I literally — because I’ve been around, as you might have noticed.  (Laughter.)  But they ask, “Does he really mean this?” “Is that — was this real?”  It caused a constitutional crisis and international embarrassment. 

Now, Trump is making it clear that if he doesn’t win this time, there will be, in his words, bloodshed — blood-
—

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  No president has ever said anything like that.  No president.  His words, not mine. 

Are we going to let Donald Trump attack our democracy again? 

AUDIENCE:  No!

THE PRESIDENT:  I don’t think so. 

Folks —

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  Folks, we’ve come a long way.   We’ve come a long way from the mess that Donald Trump left us.  We came out of the pandemic.  We’re a long way from where — Donald Trump telling us to inject bleach in our skin, that COVID is not that dangerous. 

Today, we have the strongest economy in the world without exception — (applause) — 15 million new jobs; 800,000 manufacturing jobs; unemployment under 4 percent for a record two years in a row — (applause) — historic Black and Hispanic unemployment down; historic creation of small businesses — Black and all communities across the nation, particularly in rural areas; historic economic growth; inflation has dropped from 9 percent to 3, and it’s still going down.  (Applause.)

I know we have more to do to get prices down.  We have to take on corporate greed.  They’re making twice the profit they were before the pandemic.

We got to make housing more affordable — (applause); provide childcare — (applause); make the tax code fair — (applause). 

Sixteen Nobel winners of the economic mo- — Nobel Prize have looked at my economy — economic plan.  This week, they’ve i- — issued a report.  And on Trump’s plan.

Here’s what they concluded.  They said that my plan would continue to grow the economy and bring down inflation.  (Applause.)  Sixteen Nobel laureates.  And that Trump’s plan would send the nation into recession and inflation soaring through the roof.

AUDIENCE:  Boo —

THE PRESIDENT:  Don’t take my word for it.

Folks, let me close with this.  I know I’m not a young man — (laughter) — to state the obvious.   

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I know.  (Applause.)   

AUDIENCE:  Joe!  Joe!  Joe!

THE PRESIDENT:  Well — I don’t —

AUDIENCE:  Joe!  Joe!  Joe!

THE PRESIDENT:  Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to.  I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to.  I don’t deba- — debate as well as I used to.  But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.  (Applause.) 

I know — I know — I know right from wrong.  (Applause.)  And I know how to do this job.  (Applause.)  I know how to get things done.  (Applause.)  And I know like millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up.  (Applause.)

I know what it took to take our economy from the depths of pandemic to where it is today: the strongest economy in the world.  I know what it’ll take to bring this economy to everybody.  I know what it’ll take to rally the world to stand up against Putin and defend freedom, not yield to him.  (Applause.)  And I know what it’ll take to keep the world safe and free for the years ahead.

Folks, I give you my word as a Biden.  I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job.  (Applause.)  Because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high. 

AUDIENCE:  Yes, you can!  Yes, you can!  Yes, you can!

THE PRESIDENT:  The stakes are too high.

AUDIENCE:  Yes, you can!  Yes, you can!  Yes, you can!

THE PRESIDENT:  Donald Trump — Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. 

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE PRESIDENT:  He is a threat to our freedom.

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE PRESIDENT:  He is a threat to our democracy.

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE PRESIDENT:  He’s literally a threat for everything America stands for.

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE PRESIDENT:  Look, he doesn’t understand what I think all of you do.  America is the finest, the most unique nation in the world.  (Applause.) 

We’re the only nation in the world — and I mean this sincerely.  It’s a fact statement, not a hyper- — hyperbolic statement.  It’s fact.  We’re the only nation in the world built on an idea.  All other nations are built on ethnicity, geography, and other — religion.  But we’re built on an idea that we’re all created equal — (applause) — and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.  (Applause.) 

We’ve never fully lived up, but I’ll be damned in the year 2024, just two years — just two years before the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence that I’ll let Donald Trump walk away from it.  (Applause.)

I give you my word — I give you my word as a Biden.  We’re still a nation — I believe our civilization believes in honesty, in decency, and treating people with respect.  I still believe we’re a nation that gives everyone a fair shot and leaves nobody behind.  (Applause.)

We are still a nation that gives hate no safe harbor.  (Applause.)  And we’re still the beacon to the world.  We can never give up what makes America America.  (Applause.) 

Donald Trump is motivated by revenge and retribution.  But revenge and retribution never built a damn thing.  (Applause.) 

You and I, we Americans are a nation of hope, optimism, and possibilities.  (Applause.)  That’s what always built America, and that’s going to continue to build America today.  (Applause.)

The choice in this election is simple.  Donald Trump will restore our democracy; I will defend it.  (Applause.) 

Well, folks, are you with me?  (Applause.)

Donald Trump is the first president I’ve heard of that stood up there and running for president having been one — one term, saying, “America is a failing nation.”  Where the hell does he think he is?

AUDIENCE:  Boo —

THE PRESIDENT:  No, I’m serious.  A failing — I don’t know a president who wouldn’t trade places with America in a heartbeat.  He’s dead wrong.  America is not a losing nation.  America is winning.  (Applause.)

As I stand here today, I can honestly say I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future in my whole career.  We just have to remember who we are.  We are the United States of America.  (Applause.)  And there is — there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity — nothing — when we act together.

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  You’ve got it.

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  So, may God bless you all.  And may God protect our troops.  Let’s go get them, North Carolina.  (Applause.)  

(Referring to the First Lady.)  She finally did marry me.  (Applause.)

1:37 P.M. EDT

The Biden-Harris Administration is proud of its record of recognition of the history and contributions of Black people to our country. The President was proud to sign into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, the first new Federal holiday since the creation of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday 41 years ago in 1983, designate the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, and posthumously award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Medgar Evers. Despite growing forces that are attacking racial progress and attempting to rewrite history, the President and Vice President are committed to remind us that our country is only strengthened by the breadth, complexity, and significance of the Nation’s African American history.

Today, the White House Domestic Policy Council is convening Administration officials, award-winning artists, civil rights leaders, and nationally-renowned scholars for a live-streamed event on honoring and protecting the country’s African American history. This event will demonstrate actions the Federal Government is taking to protect and preserve African American history; and supports ways the public can commemorate Juneteenth, as well as uplift the experiences, histories, and impacts of Black Americans.

Later today, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), in partnership with the White House, is producing the second annual celebration of Juneteenth National Independence Day — the official end of chattel slavery in the United States. This large-scale concert on the White House South Lawn will also celebrate Black Music Month and feature African American musical legends to honor and contextualize American history through this important Federal holiday. This event spotlights the richness of the arts and humanities to demonstrate African American history as an indelible part our shared National story.

Vice President Harris has declared Juneteenth— June 19, 2024 — as one of three National Days of Action on Voting. With a focus on voter engagement, these National Days of Action on Voting aim to ensure all Americans have the information they need to vote, promote voter participation for students, protect election workers, and fight voter suppression laws. Other National Days of Action on Voting are the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 2024 and National Voter Registration Day on September 17, 2024.

Protecting National Truths and Public Access to African American History and Culture

Aligned with President Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), in coordination with national and local philanthropic and civil society organizations, are committed to protecting and preserving African American history and culture.

• To commemorate Juneteenth, the National Archives Museum announced it will display the original Emancipation Proclamation and General Order No. 3 from June 18 – June 20, 2024.
• The National Park Service (NPS) announced Free Entrance Days in the National Parks, where all visitor entrance fees will be waived at Park Service sites for Juneteenth on June 19, 2024.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities published a digital repository of resources that commemorate Juneteenth by deepening public understanding of African American history from the Reconstruction Era to the present.
• NEH will establish a nationwide program focused on celebrating Juneteenth and promoting African American history and culture in the leadup to the 160th Anniversary of Juneteenth in 2025.  These new actions will include: new funding opportunities in all 50 states and Territories to support reading and discussion programs, traveling museum exhibits, and interactive workshops about the legacy of slavery and Emancipation, as well as the origins and significance of Juneteenth; lectures on pivotal moments in African American history and culture; film and documentaries on the ongoing struggle for freedom; new free and classroom-ready educational Juneteenth content for K-12 educators; and other efforts to preserve African American history and culture at the community and state level. These programs will culminate in a grand celebration of Juneteenth in 2025, bringing together local communities across the nation to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States and reflect on the progress and challenges faced by African Americans throughout history.
• In response to the troubling spike in book bans that threaten Americans’ rights, the U.S. Department of Education named a coordinator for responding to book bans in order to support the public and school communities in understanding the civil rights impact that book restrictions can have, and the circumstances under which such restrictions can violate federal civil rights laws. The focus of many of the current bans occurring across America disproportionately strip books about the experiences of historically marginalized groups of people, including, books about African American history. By conducting trainings throughout the country, the book ban coordinator is working to ensure that parents, students, teachers, school administrators, authors, and elected officials know and understand that where book bans target specific communities, they may violate students’ civil rights. Book banning erodes our democracy, removes vital resources for student learning, and can contribute to the bias, isolation, and social invisibility that Black, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities face.
• On June 12, 2024 the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans will host Power Up – Chicago, convening experts to discuss the critical role of well-rounded education in empowering Black students and supporting academic excellence. Experts will explore the impact of a holistic approach to education, including the importance of cultural relevance and learning opportunities that include honest African American history and access to diverse literature. In January 2024, the White House Initiative hosted Power Up – South Carolina that featured the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and a community training on how book bans may violate Federal civil rights laws and the process to resolve potential violations.
• In July, the National Endowment for the Arts will announce new recipients of the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, the Nation’s highest honor in jazz. From its origins in the Black American experience to what is now a global treasure, jazz is a uniquely American art form and source of inspiration and creativity. This cohort of rare fellowships include an award of $25,000; and the honorees will be celebrated at a public concert where NEA commits to centering and uplifting the African American roots of jazz during the program.
• As part of the IMLS 250: All Stories. All People. All Places initiative, the Institute of Museum and Library Services will be highlighting a variety of funded projects focused on preserving and protecting African American history from museums, libraries, and archives across the country. For example, the award-winning Visions of America series highlights lesser-known moments in our country’s history and culture, such as African American culture in Kansas City at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum.

Investing in Local Institutions to Preserve African American History and Culture

The Biden-Harris Administration is also announcing efforts to strengthen America’s vibrant tapestry of community-based organizations, library systems, museums and cultural institutions, as well as building capacity across the local arts and humanities workforces that care for our Nation’s treasures.

• Established 21 years ago in 2003, the Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (AAHC), administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), is one of the longest-standing Federal programs in support of preserving and protecting African American history and culture. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, AAHC is funding awards to 31 organizations for projects to begin July 1, 2024— including a continuing partnership with the Association of African American Museums to build the capacity for this national network of institutions. AAHC grant program applications for FY 2025 will open in mid-August 2024 with an expected funding level of $6 million, a historic high for the program and represent an increase of over $4 million compared to funding levels over the last five fiscal years.
• In Spring 2024, the NEA— in partnership with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the U.S. Department of Education, Library of Congress, NEH and IMLS— began a new mixed-methods research study to map the arts and cultural assets of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), analyzing regional arts and culture workforce needs, and detailing how HBCUs are partnering with local, state and regional arts organizations to preserve the heritage of these institutions.
• The National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with a consortium of U.S. Regional Arts Organizations (RAOs), will announce a cohort of nearly one hundred ArtsHERE grantees in September 2024. Launched in November 2023 by NEA in response to the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government priorities on advancing racial equity, ArtsHERE is a new $10 million pilot program that awards $65,000 to $130,000 grants to support local projects by organizations demonstrating a commitment to reducing barriers and driving equitable participation in the arts for underserved communities that historically lack access.
• Since January 2021, NEH has invested more than $50 million in humanities projects that promote African American history and culture, support HBCUs, and counter hate-motivated violence. In furtherance of its Equity Action Plan, NEH has launched three new offices to deepen its engagement with HBCUs, African American communities, and other underserved institutions and communities, including its inaugural Office of Outreach. 

Safeguarding Sites and Preserving Communities that Hold America’s Treasured Histories

The Biden-Harris Administration is ensuring that new and ongoing Federal investments help protect the unique local traditions, sacred stories, and generational legacies that breathe life and pride into America’s cities and towns, historic districts and Freedmen’s settlements, landmarks, monuments, and National parks.

• Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Interior (DOI) through NPS, has invested $190 million in infrastructure and preservation projects for sites that relate to the African American experience across the nation. Additionally, through the Historic Preservation Fund, DOI has invested over $140 million in grants that support the preservation of African American history since 2021.
• NPS announced the availability of new $1.25 million in Underrepresented Communities grants by the Historic Preservation Fund to diversify the nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. Applications for this grant cycle are due on August 29, 2024. In recent years, the Park Service has worked to increase the number of African American Heritage Sites and National Register designations— such as the Black Wall Street Greenwood Business District, the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. African American-historic sites make up less than 3% of overall sites in the National Register.
• In February 2023, the Department of Transportation (DOT) launched the “Past, Present, and Future of Reconnecting Communities” storymap to document communities, including historic Black neighborhoods and business districts that were razed or displaced as a result of decades of documented racial discrimination in Federal transportation policy. As part of DOT’s ongoing equity efforts, the agency will announce new infrastructure grants and roll out new digital resources to uplift the stories of local communities, including many Black communities, who are benefiting from the billions of dollars in nationwide projects made possible under President Biden’s landmark Investing in America agenda.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities will create a special encouragement in its grant programs for projects that preserve and promote access to historical collections documenting the history of slavery and its legacies, amplify African American voices in the stewardship of history and culture, and safeguard African American cultural resources from the threat of loss, such as during public health crises and the negative effects of climate change.
• Throughout the summer and fall of 2024, the President’s Committee on Arts and the Humanities will partner with nonprofit organizations and Federal art and humanities agencies to launch programs and initiatives that address sustainability and capacity challenges of historically underserved creative and cultural communities— including local institutions, such as African American-owned theaters—who are at high-risk of generational loss, displacement, erasure, and climate-related natural disaster. Additional programs will facilitate cross-sector dialogue on the development of culturally sensitive artificial intelligence, explore improved community arts integration in Black communities who have been historically disrupted by infrastructure projects, and promote coordinated policy on ethical returns of African and African American cultural heritage in the museum sector. Alongside federal partners, PCAH will also pilot locally-driven placemaking projects with libraries located in historically Black cities and Territories.
• The National Park Service and the National Park Foundation announced a new Request for Proposals (RFP) and new round of funding in support of Inclusive Storytelling that focuses on amplifying, documenting, and sharing lesser-known stories of America throughout the park system. The RFP and grant application for this round of funding closes on June 12, 2024. Last year, the program awarded more than $4 million in grants to support 57 projects nationwide.

Advancing Racial Equity and Making History Through the Biden-Harris Administration

The Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to further advancing racial justice so that the promise of America is real for every American, including Black Americans.

• Signed two Executive Orders directing the Federal Government to advance an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda to redress systemic barriers, including increasing access to Federal contracting dollars, capital, and lending programs for small disadvantaged businesses; advancing civil rights and environmental justice; closing health disparities; building economic prosperity in rural communities; and combating urban community disinvestment and housing discrimination.
• Signed an Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting to leverage the resources of the Federal Government to provide nonpartisan information about the election process and increase access to voter registration. Agencies across the Federal Government are taking action to respond to the President’s call for an all-of-government effort to enhance the ability of all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.
• Announced new actions to protect the sacred right to vote, including increased funding for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which has more than doubled the number of voting rights enforcement staff. The Justice Department also created the Election Threats Task Force to address violence against election workers and ensure that all election workers are able to do their jobs free from threats and intimidation.

The Biden-Harris Administration is delivering history-making results, including for Black Americans:

• Under President Biden, the Black unemployment rate and gap between Black and white unemployment hit record lows.
• Black wealth is up 60% relative to pre-pandemic levels.
• Black-owned businesses are being created at the fastest rate in 30 years.
• Selected the first Black person and first woman to serve as Vice President of the United States.
• Nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and more Black women to federal circuit courts than every President combined.
• Appointed the most diverse Presidential administration in American history.

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