Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris returned to metro Atlanta on the eve of Father’s Day weekend. She was in town on Friday, June 14 to add her voice to a conversation about economic opportunity that was taking place during the 38th annual 100 Black Men of America conference. The vice president has immediate plans to return to Atlanta next week to discuss gun violence and gun control with former Migos rapper Quavo on Tuesday, June 18. Migos member Takeoff was shot and killed in Houston on November 1, 2022.
Georgia, and Atlanta and Fulton County more specifically, remain crucial battleground voter blocks for the Biden-Harris administration. Harris has made several appearances in metro Atlanta this year, including most recently in College Park in April to kick off the Biden-Harris Administration’s Economic Opportunity Tour. The tour has since made stops in Detroit, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Harris was back on a stage in Atlanta alongside celebrated comedian, author, and television host Steve Harvey, the afternoon’s moderator, to talk about a number of subjects, including the Biden-Harris administration’s championing of community banks, student loan debt relief, the power of home ownership and the need for more homeownership by Black and brown people, and medical debt relief.
“I’m in these streets,” proclaimed Harris after receiving a standing ovation upon taking the stage and greeting Harvey. Harris said she wanted to be in Atlanta at the 100 Black Men of America conference because she wanted a huge platform on which to speak about the access to capital for small businesses and home ownership.
“We want to get the word out. That’s why I’m doing this tour,” Harris, the first Black Vice President of the United States said.
Harvey acknowledged that he was out of his comfort zone interviewing the vice president about how she and President Joseph R. Biden have planned to even the wealth gap in the United States. “I’m like Gayle King,” he joked.
“People need more than what’s enough to get by, they want to get ahead,” Harris explained while speaking to the capacity crowd inside the main ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta on Peachtree Street. During the time Harris was on stage and immediately after, traffic on Peachtree Street was blocked off around the Hyatt.
Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
Harris made a point to discuss how little funding Black-owned small businesses get from venture capital funds. Less than 2% of venture capital investments are going to Black small businesses, according to data provided by crunchbase.com. That is a large drop off from the amount of money that was invested in Black-owned start-ups and small businesses in the immediate aftermath of the Black Lives Matters summers of 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Harvey went off script for a moment following Harris speaking of the changes the Biden-Harris administration has made with debt relief, for example. “I know I ain’t coming back next year. I appreciate y’all having me,” joked Harvey after he spoke about not wanting to hear people call his nationally syndicated radio show on Monday morning to talk about why he didn’t “ask any hardball questions.”
“This is not what this is about. This is an alley-oop for a dunk,” he said. “This administration needs to get the word out.”
Harris said the Biden-Harris administration is “addressing the realities of what holds people back.” She added that she understands that Black people, for example, do not “lack for hard work and good ideas”, but the lack of funding and the lack of information on how to receive small business loans or funding can be a huge detriment.
Regarding homeownership, Harris pointed out the $25,000 credit for down payments and $400 per month credit for first-time (described by Harris as “first generation”) home owners that the Biden-Harris administration pushed forward and has made available.
“These are some of the issues we are trying to address. We have to give people the opportunity to compete,” Harris said. “That’s what this is about.”
Harvey asked Harris what advice she would give to the young people in the room and Harris said she wanted them to know that when they are in the rooms where decisions are being made, they should know that the elder generation is in the room with them.
“You must dream with ambition. Don’t ever let anybody tell you not to have ambition,” she said. “I always say I eat no for breakfast.”
100 Black Men of America Vice Chairman Michael Victorian was the event MC and the Reverend Timothy McDowell III delivered the invocation, saying in part, “Bless our vice president with even more wisdom as she prepares to speak this afternoon.”
Along with Harris and Harvey, there were a number of local and nationally recognized celebrities in the crowd to see and hear Harris that afternoon, including Civil Right era icon, former Atlanta Mayor and Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young.
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