Biden recalls seeing ‘colored kids’ on segregated bus during his youth in post-presidency speech

Former President Joe Biden, while reflecting on his youth and witnessing segregation firsthand, referred to Black students as “colored kids” in his first major address since exiting the Oval Office. 

“We lived in an apartment complex, and she’d [Biden’s mom] drive us only about half a mile to Holy Rosary School in Claymont. But it was so dangerous, she wouldn’t let us walk up,” Biden said Tuesday evening while delivering a speech on the Social Security Administration before a disability advocacy conference in Chicago. 

“There were hardly any Black people in Scranton at the time … and I was only going into fourth grade. And I remember seeing kids going by, at the time called colored kids, on a bus going by,” Biden added in his anecdote to explain the importance of civil rights laws to him and why he got involved in politics. 

The 46th president was reflecting on how his family moved from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware, when he was in fourth grade and how he witnessed segregated schools in the nation’s second-smallest state. 

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“They never turned right to go to Claymont High School,” Biden said of Black students not attending a White school. “I asked my mom why? Why? In Delaware, they’re not allowed to go to school in public school with White kids.

“And it sparked my sense of outrage as a kid, just like it does [now].” 

The Supreme Court effectively ended segregation in public schools across the country in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. 

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The former president joined the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago Tuesday evening, where he received the “beacon of hope award” for his accomplishments as president and addressed the gathering about the Social Security Administration, including attacking the Trump administration for its policies. 

“Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?” Biden asked, referring to the Trump administration. “Well, they’re following that old line from tech startups. The quote is ‘move fast, break things.’ They’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later.

“The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights.” 

Biden added that the Trump administration is looking to “wreck” Social Security to “rob it.” 

“My friend, Gov. O’Malley, knows what they’re really up to. He says, and I love his quote, ‘They want to wreck it so they could rob it.’ They want to wreck it so they could rob it. Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations and keep it going. They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. That’s going to cost $5 trillion. Where are they going to get $5 trillion to pay for (it) when they continue to run the deficit up?

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“What they always do … by running up the national debt, No. 1. Then by taking the money from someplace else. What are the two big pots of money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid. …. Republicans, these guys are willing to hurt the middle class and the working class in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to their already very wealthy. Who in the hell do they think they are?” 

The Trump administration has cut about 7,000 Social Security Administration staffers since taking office as part of its mission to cut government fat and bureaucracy and realign agencies with “America First” policies. Democrats have slammed President Donald Trump over the cuts, claiming he will cut Social Security benefits to seniors. 

The White House has repeatedly rejected claims that the Trump administration will cut such benefits, vowing to “always protect” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

The Trump administration’s official Social Security X account responded after the speech that “Biden is lying to Americans,” before providing a detailed list of “facts,” including that Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect benefits and that no field office has been closed since Jan. 20. 

The ACRD conference was billed as the 46th president’s first public speech since leaving the White House. Biden however, has delivered other public remarks since Jan. 20, Fox Digital found, such as speaking at the National High School Model United Nations in March, but those events received little media coverage.