President Biden spent his final full day in office in South Carolina, a state he credits for helping catapult him to the White House and where he returned in his final hours as president to urge his supporters to stay engaged in the fight for a more just nation.
During visits to a historically Black church and an African American museum, Mr. Biden reflected on his history with a place that he said had played a pivotal role in his life and career and that pushed him in his efforts to restore “the soul of the nation.”
“We know the struggle to redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing,” Mr. Biden said on Sunday as he addressed the congregation of Royal Missionary Baptist Church, a historically Black congregation that he visited on the campaign trail in 2020. “But faith — faith teaches us the America of our dreams is always closer than we think.”
He added: “We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. We must always keep the faith in a better day to come. I’m not going anywhere — I’m not kidding. The people of South Carolina, thank you for keeping the faith. It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president.”
Mr. Biden’s decision to end his term in the Lowcountry seemed to be cathartic for the outgoing president, whose last address contained a dark warning of American “oligarchy,” and who is leaving a role he has long revered after being rejected by his own party and an American electorate he served for more than half a century.
Mr. Biden, who was joined by members of his family on the visit, reflected on how he found “faith and friendship” among Black communities in South Carolina during critical moments of his life.
Among the most pivotal, Mr. Biden said, was the endorsement from Representative James E. Clyburn in 2020. Mr. Clyburn, a longtime friend and close adviser, accompanied Mr. Biden on his farewell tour Sunday.
“I would not be standing here in this pulpit were it not for Jim Clyburn,” Mr. Biden said.
It was in Charleston that Mr. Biden, seeking the coveted endorsement of Mr. Clyburn, declared during a Democratic primary debate that he would appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. He went on to a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary, leveraging his support from Black voters, and emerged as the Democratic nominee from a crowded field of candidates.
In 2015, when he was vice president, Mr. Biden attended the funeral service of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was murdered along with eight others by a white supremacist at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Less than a month after the death of his son Beau, a grief-stricken Mr. Biden surprised the congregation when he chose to attend and speak at the ceremony, which he said helped him draw strength during his own time of mourning.
In his return to Royal Missionary Baptist Church, Mr. Biden recalled how he visited the church when he was a presidential candidate. “I prayed with you here in February of 2020 when I was running for president,” he said. “On my final full day as president, of all the places I wanted to be was back here with you.”
Mr. Biden received a warm welcome from the congregation. In introducing the president, Royal Missionary’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Isaac J. Holt Jr., said Mr. Biden’s relationship with Black Americans would be an enduring part of his legacy.
“History will remind us that you cared about Black people,” Mr. Holt said.
During his visit, Mr. Biden endeavored to show his appreciation for the contributions of Black Americans. He was visibly moved during sermons about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a church service, and during his visit to the International African American Museum he took long pauses to watch a gospel choir sing him on and off the stage.
Mr. Biden spoke of the importance of Black America, not just to his presidency — “I owe you big,” he told the congregation — but to the nation’s history and future. He said he first got involved in public life because of the civil rights movement, and called the Black church “the spiritual home of the Black experience that helped redeem the soul of the nation.”
At the church, Mr. Biden reflected on ways that he was inspired to fulfill his campaign pledge to heal societal wounds, including his announcement on Sunday that he would posthumously pardon the civil rights and Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey along with other activists and public servants.
“We know how healing and restoration from harm is a pathway to the kind of communities we want to live in, where there’s fairness, justice, accountability,” Mr. Biden said of his decision, “where the people we love go through hard times, fall down, make mistakes, but we’re right there and helping get back up. We don’t turn on each other. We lean into each other.”
Mr. Biden ended his day at the museum, which was built on a former shipping wharf where thousands of enslaved people disembarked. He said the museum embodies the “trauma and the triumph of African American experience, and embodies the truth that Black history is American history.”
“Today, there’s been a long line of Black patriots who helped make the promise of America real for all Americans, who have helped us become the nation we say we are and want to be,” Mr. Biden said. “As my presidency comes to an end, I know how it started — because of this movement.”
Mr. Clyburn also spoke at the events, praising Mr. Biden’s character and his policy accomplishments. He also acknowledged the bittersweet end of Mr. Biden’s term.
“Joe Biden has been what this country needed,” said Mr. Clyburn, who seemed to choke up as he lamented that “people don’t always appreciate it.”
“So I want to say to you, good friend,” Mr. Clyburn said to Mr. Biden, “very little appreciation has been shown recently. But faint not — history will be very kind to you.”