President Joe Biden gave a high-stakes commencement speech to hundreds of young Black men at Morehouse College on Sunday, delivering a direct address to the constituency his campaign worries is shifting against him as he runs for reelection against former President Donald Trump.

The Democrat used parts of his 25-minute speech to lay out the stakes of his 2024 campaign, saying he was determined “to root out systemic racism” while also acknowledging more work ahead to combat economic inequality.

And Biden spoke broadly about his handling of the Israel-Hamas war that led to threats of boycotts and protests of his speech, revealing that his own family is upset by the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza that worsened after Israel launched its military campaign following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

“It’s one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. There’s nothing easy about it,” the president said, nodding to the 414 graduating seniors arrayed before him. “I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine.”

The speech represented Biden’s most significant public remarks to students since protests over the war in Gaza broke out in campuses around the nation, and it was largely well received on a campus with a rich legacy of social activism.

Still, though there were no mass demonstrations from the Morehouse audience, there were symbols of protest throughout the event.

One faculty member stood with her back turned and her fist raised aloft throughout Biden’s speech. Some students, notably, didn’t stand to applaud after Biden’s remarks. And the crowd roared after the valedictorian, DeAngelo Fletcher, called “for an immediate and permanent cease-fire.”

Outside the strict security measures surrounding the gated campus, more than 100 protesters marched to Morehouse, some waving signs reading “Genocide Joe” and chanting, demanding a cease-fire.

Among the demonstrators who marched from West End Park to the Atlanta University Center was Daxton Pettus, a junior at Morehouse, who said he felt he was standing up for what is right.

”I made a commitment, a personal commitment to be on the right side of history and to be an active agent,” said Pettus, who noted one of Morehouse’s most famed graduates.

“This is the home of Martin Luther King. And we’re inviting a war criminal to come to speak to students, even though he is the president.”

Biden referenced the ongoing war in broad terms, saying the conflict is “heartbreaking” and that he’s working “around the clock” to bring an end to the fighting that started on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants invaded Israel.

“I support peaceful nonviolent protest,” Biden said. “Your voices should be heard. I promise you I hear you.”

There were also efforts to highlight a conflict that Biden didn’t reference. On stage, at least three faculty members periodically waved a flag from the Democratic Republic of Congo to draw attention to the ongoing conflict in that African nation.

Some expressed excitement over Biden’s visit, noting the rarity of a president speaking at a historically Black college, a part of the higher education system long neglected by political leaders.

“I’m actually very glad that President Biden is coming to Morehouse,” student Braxton Broady told the Politically Georgia podcast. “Regardless of whoever’s political belief, I think that the attention that a sitting president brings to campus is a great bargaining chip.”

Biden has largely backed Israel’s approach to the ongoing war with Hamas, though he’s more recently called for more humanitarian aid and Israeli restraint.

His stance, along with a recent military aid package for Israel, has infuriated pro-Palestinian protesters who have staged encampments in many college campuses, including at Emory University and the University of Georgia.

The backlash at Morehouse, however, has taken place more in campus discussions than public demonstrations. And as petitions circulated objecting to Biden’s speech, Morehouse’s president David A. Thomas warned he would stop the graduation ceremony if there were public disruptions.

The visit came as Biden’s campaign is struggling to recapture the excitement and energy that propelled his narrow 2020 victory in Georgia, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in nearly three decades.

Polls show Trump gaining more traction with Black voters — long the party’s most loyal constituency — and tight races in Georgia battleground states in a rematch that many voters say they dread.

While senior Democratic strategists don’t worry about Trump forging a breakthrough among Black voters, they fret that many who voted for the Democrat in 2020 will stay home this November.

Republicans view even modest gains among voters of color as crucial to flipping Georgia, a linchpin in Trump’s comeback strategy. At the Georgia GOP convention this weekend in Columbus, several political leaders spoke hopefully about Trump cracking double digits of Black support this year.

“Black Georgians don’t need Joe Biden to tell them what’s good for them,” said Republican state Rep. Mesha Mainor, a Black legislator from Atlanta who switched parties last year. “Black Georgians were much better off before Biden’s failed policies sent inflation to historic highs.”

Ahead of Sunday’s speech, Biden headlined a flurry of events aimed at shoring up the party’s base. And he made several stops in Atlanta on Saturday to showcase his Black support.

He was welcomed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport with a group of Morehouse graduates, including U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, one of his most important allies in Georgia. And he told voters at a fundraiser Georgia is “the reason I won.”

Biden left Morehouse shortly after his address and headed to Detroit before noon.

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