Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta on June 14, addressing the 38th Conference of 100 Black Men as part of her economic opportunity tour.
The event, moderated by Family Feud host Steve Harvey, provided a platform for meaningful dialogue about economic opportunities for minority communities.
Harris mentioned the importance of creating pathways for small minority-owned businesses to access venture capital, achieve home ownership, and prevent debt, referencing policies advanced by the Biden-Harris administration to close the racial wealth gap.
“There are obstacles built into the system that have to be addressed to give people the opportunity—and it’s not about a handout,” Harris told the crowd. “It’s about saying, ‘Give people the opportunity to compete, give hardworking people the opportunity to get ahead and not just get by.’”
Harris’s visit to Atlanta was her second trip to the city as part of the tour; she is scheduled to return on June 18 to discuss gun violence.
During her April visit, Harris highlighted a $158 million investment from the Biden-Harris administration allocated to Atlanta through the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program.
This initiative, the first of its kind by the federal government, aims to heal the wounds inflicted by the historic construction of America’s highway system, which decimated thriving Black communities.
Civil rights lawyer and law professor Deborah Archer has noted that the interstate highway system served to entrench racial inequality and protect white privilege by cutting through Black neighborhoods.
The Biden-Harris administration’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program seeks to address this legacy of harm and support economic revitalization in communities long affected by disinvestment.
“The Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program is yet another way the Biden-Harris administration is advancing economic opportunity, while taking on the legacy of harm in communities that have grappled with decades of disinvestment or economic distress,” the White House stated. “The administration is focused on supporting economic comebacks in communities across the country, especially those that have suffered from decades of disinvestment.”
