Students at black SC college give mixed reviews ahead of Trump’s invitation only event
President Donald Trump is trying to prove something, some say. It is a great opportunity, say others. And then there are those who ask, what’s the point of him coming to a black college in South Carolina?
For students near the campus of Benedict College on Wednesday, the reviews of Trump’s upcoming visit to their historically black college were mixed.
The visit to the college in Columbia is said to be the president’s first appearance at a historically black college or university, though he has spoken to HBCU leaders before. Trump’s speech Friday also will kick off a two-day forum featuring 10 Democratic presidential candidates offering how they would overhaul the country’s criminal justice system if they win the White House.
The forum is hosted by the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center and Benedict College, with co-hosts Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, the National Black Police Association, the African American Mayors Association, local elected officials with the National Black Caucus and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.
“I don’t really think he should be here,” said Deannah Mitchell, a 20-year-old Benedict sophomore, who added that she is interested in what Trump has to say. “It’s the things he says about people of different ethnicities. It’s strange that he would come here.”
“I don’t know. He’s so unpredictable,” Benedict freshman Travonte Jackson, 19, agreed. “He should not be here. If you look him up on YouTube or anything, he doesn’t care about black people or anything, so I don’t know why he is coming to an HBCU.”
Other students told The State on Wednesday it could mark the chance for the president to reach out to black voters, an electorate that Trump struggles to retain. A recent poll from the Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed Trump’s approval rating among African Americans at 4%.
“It’s a great opportunity for students to meet the president of the United States,” said freshman Deondre Brunson, 18. “Just talk to us.”
Little information was publicly available Wednesday about which students, or how many, would get a chance to meet the president when he visits Friday. The State requested details Tuesday on how many guests at the president’s remarks were invited from Benedict’s student body but had not received an answer by publication time Wednesday.
On Saturday and Sunday, the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center also will preside over a two-day Democratic presidential candidate forum open to anyone who secured tickets through an online reservation portal that was publicly accessible. The Democrats will field questions from moderators and audience members about criminal justice reform in an early primary state where two-thirds of the Democratic Party’s voters are African American.
Trump, in contrast, is speaking at a symposium called “conservative case for the criminal justice reform.” And despite that being billed as part of the broader political candidates’ forum and weekend criminal justice conference Benedict is hosting, Trump is participating in the Friday event in his capacity as president, not a candidate.
A White House official told The State on Wednesday that Trump’s remarks Friday are by invitation only.
On Wednesday, Benedict’s campus was business as usual, where students hustled between classes and their dorm rooms.
Come Friday, when Benedict classes are canceled, Jackson said, “Everyone is basically going home or staying in their dorm.”
Trump ‘said yes to Benedict College’
Trump is not the first president to visit Benedict. In 2015, President Barack Obama also visited the campus.
The invitation-only guest list, though mostly a mystery, does feature Republican allies of Trump.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to attend, his office said.
South Carolina’s Glenn McCall, a national committeeman with the Republican National Committee, also was invited and planned to attend.
Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s strongest allies in Washington, told McClatchy DC Tuesday he expected he’d be at the event on Friday, too.
The audience also may include some S.C. lawmakers, but spokespeople for House and Senate Democrats said, as of Wednesday, their members had not been invited.
Stephen Gilchrist, the president of the S.C. African American Chamber of Commerce, said he was personally invited by the White House.
”The fact that he is coming to a place like South Carolina, where we have a large constituency of African Americans in prison, this is just a good opportunity to be able to speak to the people. And what makes it even more impressive is that he is choosing to have that conversation at a historically black college,” said Gilchrist, a longtime Trump supporter who is expected to work on the president’s minority outreach efforts for the 2020 reelection campaign.
Gilchrist continued: ”Given the fact that the president has agreed to come here and be with a bipartisan group of elected officials to talk about his centerpiece regarding prison reform, it’s an absolutely unprecedented opportunity for African Americans in South Carolina.”
South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the U.S. Senate who hosts an annual “fly-in” day for students at historically black colleges on Capitol Hill, gave no indication to McClatchy DC that he planned on attending, but said Trump’s visit was significant for highlighting a historically black learning institution.
”The only person who can bring the type of attention to an HBCU is the president of the United States,” he said. “The most powerful person in the world has said ‘yes’ to Benedict College. That should not be lost in the conversation.”
The college visit also marks an opportunity for the president to tout the First Step Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation he signed into law that has helped to release thousands of federal prison inmates, many who were jailed for nonviolent drug offenses.
”The president is coming to have a conversation about an issue that is incredibly important to the African American community. That’s a good thing,” Scott said. “Then you have candidates trying to win enough support so they can be the person on the other side of the debate when that actual one-on-one debate starts. That, to me, doesn’t seem like that big a deal.”
Scott also said he wasn’t concerned Trump would be discussing criminal justice reform in a different setting as the Democratic hopefuls.
”You can pay attention to whatever it is you want to pay attention to. I’m paying attention to the fact that this HBCU, Benedict, is getting ready to have more attention globally than it’s ever had before, and that’s a big thing,” Scott said.
“Who’s in the audience or not — if I’m going anywhere, I’m going to tell all my friends I’m coming to that place so I can have all my friends in the audience, that’s not unusual. If it’s an exclusive audience of his people, maybe I’ll think about this differently.”
‘We’re being recognized’
Next door to the spotlight on Benedict is another HBCU that calls Columbia home, where students also were weighing what it means to have the president visit.
“I feel like it’s just not a good platform for him to spread his ideas,” said Jessica Julius, a 23-year-old senior at Allen University. “A lot of what he is saying is not fair to black people, the white people, to Hispanic and Latino people.”
Allen sophomore Camille Bowman, 20, told The State she did not really have an opinion on Trump’s visit, but added, “I guess it’s OK.”
Other Allen students see Trump’s visit as an historic opportunity for HBCU’s and for Trump himself.
“I feel like it will benefit HBCU’s as a whole, because it’s not like Donald Trump is going to USC (University of South Carolina),” said Allen senior Valencia James, 27. “I mean if Donald Trump goes to USC, it’s like, OK cool, but he actually went out of the way to go to an HBCU when we live in a time where a lot of people say HBCU’s are no longer needed.”
“It benefits the students and Benedict and it benefits Donald Trump, too,” said Allen senior Desmond Rowe, 22, adding the president will see how students feel and how Washington affects “these little rural people down in the South.”
“We’re being recognized,” said Allen junior Jordan Wiggins, 22. “As with any visitor anywhere, you learn the culture if (you) visit someone’s home. I hope that Donald Trump adopts that same idea.”
What do they hope the president takes away?
“Black lives matter,” James said. “I hope he sees that these black bodies sitting in this gym or auditorium actually matter.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
