Biden urges Americans to ’keep the faith’ as he spends final full day as president in South Carolina

Joe Biden reflects on civil rights, South Carolina influence in final day as President, urging hope for the future.

Joe Biden spent his final full day as President Sunday (January 19, 2025) in South Carolina, urging Americans to “keep the faith in a better day to come” and reflecting on the influence of both the civil rights movement and the state itself in his political trajectory.

On the eve of Monday’s inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Mr. Biden delivered a final farewell from a state that holds special meaning after his commanding win in its 2020 Democratic primary set him up to achieve his life’s goal of winning election as president.

Mr. Biden spoke to the congregation of Royal Missionary Baptist Church about why he entered public service — Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were political heroes, he said. And in a nod to South Carolina Democrats, he said: “I owe you big.”

The day before the federal holiday honoring King, the slain civil rights leader, Mr. Biden struck a more hopeful tone for the future of the country than his televised farewell address last Wednesday, when he warned about an “oligarchy” of the ultrawealthy taking root and a “tech-industrial complex” impeding the future of democracy.

“We know the struggle to redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing," Mr. Biden said Sunday. “We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. We must always keep the faith in a better day to come."

He added: "I’m not going anywhere” — and the congregation applauded.

Mr. Biden later toured the International African American Museum in Charleston which was built on a waterfront site where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought to the U.S. from the late 1760s through 1808.