As President Trump heads to historically black Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, Friday, state-based outlets report that Democratic candidates felt “blindsided,” and current Benedict students have shared “mixed reviews” about the president’s participation in the criminal justice forum. The weekend-long event — co-hosted by Benedict and the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center — will focus on the next steps that should be taken to improve criminal justice reform after the passage of The First Step Act last year. CBS News campaign reporter LaCrai Mitchell spoke with a dozen HBCU students and alumni across four southern states who also expressed varying sentiments to news of the president’s visit.
National Urban League president Marc Morial tells CBS News that even though the president signed bipartisan legislation to reform criminal justice, he’s hoping this isn’t “just a political photo op at an African-American college.”
“I’m not going to take [bipartisan criminal justice legislation] away from him, but it doesn’t balance out against many of the policies — particularly the judicial appointments, the lack of diversity in the Cabinet and of the White House staff — that deeply concern us,” says Morial. “While we always celebrate when a president goes to a historically black college, it doesn’t take away from the damage that many of his policies are causing.”
David Sheppard, Senior VP General Counsel and COS for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, says that the Trump administration has been responsive to concerns raised by TMCF and other organizations that represent the interests of HBCUs and minority-serving institutions. Sheppard cites the HBCU Capital Finance Program as an example of legislation that has positively impacted some HBCUs.
“There have been some positive things that have happened during the Trump administration, relative to engagement with HBCUs,” says Sheppard. “The fact that the president’s willing to come to one of our campuses to talk about an important issue in America today I think is significant, and hopefully it’s an opportunity for it to be an open forum on that issue or other issues that impact our schools.”
Marc Morial is married to CBS This Morning: Saturday co-host Michelle Miller.
