President Joe Biden and the Bethel AME Church, Wilmington, Delaware Connection
By Kori Beaman Cheatham, 1st Episcopal District
There are many wonderful things about Wilmington, Delaware. However, central among them are its small quaintness and sense of community. Delawareans generally are familiar with one another while possessing a neighborly affection in our various communities. Wilmington was central to the success of the Underground Railroad. The influence of the African American Church was essential to the conductors who were Wilmingtonians or someone very knowledgeable about the city and its abolitionist leanings, such as Harriet Tubman and Thomas Garrett.
The Mother African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church, founded by Peter Spencer in 1813 and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1844, (as part of the Bishop Richard Allen movement of 1816), were leading congregations at this critical point in American history. Both Churches continued to be change agents throughout the years for the city’s African American and disenfranchised minority communities.
When a young Joe Biden moved to Wilmington, he found these churches active in the Civil Rights Movement for the equality of all people. Pastor Beaman’s relationship with President-Elect Biden began in 1993 after his appointment by Bishop Philip Robert Cousin to the Historic Bethel AME Church, Wilmington Delaware. When Pastor Beaman was initially elected to the Presidency of the Wilmington Interdenominational Minister’s Action Council, the relationship between the President-Elect Joe Biden and Pastor Beaman blossomed into a role of advocates and supporters of one another.
Pastor Beaman states that one of his greatest political lessons came as the result of then, Senator Biden’s tutelage. That lesson was to always count your votes before, during and after an election. Furthermore, know where your support is coming from. Finally, know how to win your constituent’s confidence and support. For this reason, the citizens of the State of Delaware sent Joe Biden as Delaware’s representative to the U.S. Senate from 1972 until 2008, when he was elected and inaugurated Vice President during the Obama Administration. At Vice President Biden’s second inauguration, he personally invited the Beaman family to attend his swearing ceremony the night prior to President Obama’s inauguration. The Beaman family sat among the special guest section at the inauguration and rode with a host of Biden Family guests in the Presidential motorcade and parade.
At the advice of his father, Beau Biden sought Pastor Beaman out as a trusted advisor to his campaign and subsequent administration as the Attorney General of the State of Delaware. Their friendship and working relationship became substantial during Biden’s tenure as Attorney General. When Beau Biden became ill and died from brain cancer, the family asked Pastor Beaman to assist in Beau’s funeral and the celebration of his life.
On June 1, 2020, following the national outcry in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Presidential candidate and former Vice President Biden, while at home in Wilmington, Delaware, was compelled to connect and empathize with what the people of Delaware were feeling, saying and reacting to this national heartbreak. Biden contacted Pastor Beaman to ask if he and his wife Renee would host an intimate round table discussion with local clergy, community activists and elected officials at Bethel AME Church.
At this meeting, the then Presidential candidate, Joe Biden sat, listened intently and commiserated with the attendees regarding the racial and economic injustices associated with the murder of George Floyd and others, and inequities inherent in the COVID-19 pandemic decimating the black and brown communities in America. At this meeting Rev. Shanika Perry, Youth Pastor and Executive Minister at Bethel Church challenged the former Vice President, regarding the efficacy of selecting a woman as his running mate. At this time, Presidential candidate Joe Biden was the leading choice for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 Presidential election and had not chosen a potential running mate. We all know he did take heed to Rev. Perry’s challenge and Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris, a close friend of Rev. Edgar Boyd of First AME Church, Los Angeles, California is poised to take the oath of office in January as the first female and woman of color to be Vice President.
The Beaman family were guests of honor at both the Democratic National Convention as well as both on Election Night (November 4th) and November 7th, the day, Joe Biden was officially named as the winner of the 2020 Presidential election. We celebrate the Wilmington Connection, his victory as the President, and our path forward as citizens of the United States of America.
