南卡罗来纳州哥伦比亚市——乔·拜登在2020年2月下旬前往南卡罗来纳州初选时，民主党总统候选人提名的竞选几乎被宣布失败。
他在新罕布什尔州获得第五名，在爱荷华州获得第四名。尽管如此，拜登建议怀疑论者在拥有大量黑人选民(最可靠的民主党选区)的州有机会介入之前，不要做出判断。
“你的忠诚，你的承诺，你对这个政党的支持经常被认为是理所当然的，”他说。“作为拜登，我向你保证，我永远、永远、永远都不会。”
黑人选民兑现了承诺，重铸了民主党的竞争，让拜登踏上了入主白宫的道路。
如今，在他担任总统一年后，拜登希望他能保持黑人选民的支持，尽管他未能在投票权立法和其他问题上取得进展，这让一些忠实者感到沮丧。在他进入第二年时面临的诸多挑战中，很少有比保持党内基础的强大支持更重要的了。
在美联社-NORC公共事务研究中心最近的一项民意调查中，只有十分之六的美国黑人表示支持拜登，低于拜登总统任期前六个月民意调查中约十分之九的支持率。
“我有些不知所措。在某些时候，我很生气。我想看看是否有什么可取之处，”73岁的乔治·哈特说，他是全美有色人种协进会大学本尼迪克特学院的教授和教师顾问，该学院是哥伦比亚历史上的黑人学院。“我只是太幻灭了，我不知道该说什么。
哈特在南卡罗来纳州的初选中支持拜登，他说:“从他成为总统到他真正推出这项措施，他让这么多事情发生，但这一切都失败了。“而我们，非裔美国人，黑人选民，将会为此付出代价。”
哈特的观点并不是上周在南卡罗来纳州采访黑人选民时的普遍观点，但对于一位支持率接近历史低点的总统来说，这是一个令人担忧的迹象。一些长期支持拜登竞选的南卡罗来纳州黑人选民对他的政府抱有希望，而那些勉强支持他的人——或者根本不支持——说他们不为所动。
丹尼斯兄弟“从一开始”就支持拜登，他说他觉得事情进展得“相当顺利”，尽管他对拜登没有履行竞选承诺取消——而不是推迟——一些学生债务感到沮丧。
“这令人失望，”来自卡尔霍恩县的31岁媒体专家兄弟说。“我只希望那些承诺中的一些能够兑现。”
在接下来的三年里，兄弟表示，政府应该更加透明地表达自己的目标，尤其是在与黑人选民相关的问题上，比如警务改革。
“我们知道罗马不是一天建成的，”Brothers说。“我不会说他没有努力，但我只是希望他能再努力一点。”
来自霍普金斯大学的64岁农村社区倡导者玛格丽特·苏姆波特(Margaret Sumpter)将投票权停滞归咎于国会僵局，而不是拜登的不作为，她说拜登正在发现，他作为长期参议员取得的两党成功不一定会转化为总统任期。
“我认为他可以和像米特·罗姆尼这样的共和党人以及其他一些人一起更努力地推动这项法案的通过，”萨姆普特说，他在南卡罗来纳州的初选中支持亿万富翁商人汤姆·施泰尔，但后来投票给了拜登。
“就像他们对他做的一样，他们也对巴拉克·奥巴马做了同样的事情，”她说。“为什么?人们认为共和党人会因为他是白人而对他有所不同吗?没有。”
其他人没那么耐心。
特拉维斯·林肯在2019年参加了拜登在南卡罗来纳州的首次集会，甚至还主持了后来的活动，但最终在初选中支持了科技企业家杨安泽。林肯经营着哥伦比亚无家可归退伍军人组织，他在总体上支持拜登选举但表示，他对拜登的总统任期并不感冒。
44岁的林肯说:“他的竞选活动让我们相信他会支持一些黑人议题，但这并没有真的发生。“站在他那一边的人认为这将是对他最好的举动。这更像是一种政治策略。”
关于投票权，林肯说，由于众所周知的共和党反对，他认为这项努力从一开始就注定要失败。相反，他认为，拜登应该专注于其他有可能取得进展的问题，比如删除非暴力毒品犯罪，拜登竞选时曾就这个问题发表过演讲，但没有采取行政行动。
拉·施罗德·弗雷泽-盖恩斯共同创立了关注黑人男性政治参与的非营利组织“放大行动”，并在南卡罗来纳州初选中投票支持佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯。在弗雷泽-盖恩斯看来，拜登说的远比兑现的多。
“黑人是乔·拜登成为总统的原因，我不觉得...弗雷泽-盖恩斯说:“有一次，他通过政策向我们表达了‘谢谢’。“是的，他的政府给了很多有才华的黑人担任不同职位的机会。所有这些都很可爱，但这并没有给全国各地的黑人家庭带来食物。”
尽管如此，拜登仍然获得了众议员吉姆·克莱伯恩的支持，他是美国众议院排名第三的民主党人，也是南卡罗来纳州的有力人物，尤其是在黑人选民中。克莱伯恩没有在投票权问题上指责拜登，而是将批评的重点放在了导致立法失败的两位民主党人身上，他们是西弗吉尼亚州的参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)和亚利桑那州的基斯顿·西内马(Kyrsten Sinema)。
民主党全国委员会成员布雷斯·麦克斯韦驳斥了关于拜登在该州黑人选民中不够真实的批评。
马克斯韦尔说:“我不认为他会浪费所有这些时间只是为了嘴上说说而已。“我认为他非常真诚，我认为他想让每个人都开心。”
资深民权活动家詹姆斯·费尔德对拜登总体表现良好感到满意，他在初选中支持拜登，并努力争取当选，他指责的不是总统，而是“几乎蓄意阻挠”的曼钦和西内马导致了投票权的失败。
82岁的费尔德说:“这对党来说确实是一个挫折，对国家来说也是一个挫折。“两票和两个人阻碍了我们目前可能取得的所有进展。”
对Sumpter来说，拜登做得和预期的一样好，并且已经实现了一些真正的改变，比如提高儿童税收抵免。
“他没有辜负我对他的期望，”Sumpter说。“一个人第一年能完成的事情就这么多。”
Black Democrats in South Carolina giving Biden mixed reviews
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Joe Biden's run for the Democratic presidential nomination was all but declared dead as he headed to the South Carolina primary in late February 2020.
He had finished fifth in New Hampshire and fourth in Iowa. Still, Biden advised skeptics to withhold judgment until a state with a large pool of Black voters, the most reliable Democratic constituency, had a chance to weigh in.
“Too often your loyalty, your commitment, your support for this party has been taken for granted,” he said. “I give you my word as a Biden that I never, ever, ever will.”
Black voters delivered, recasting the Democratic contest and sending Biden on his way to the White House.
Now, one year into his presidency, Biden is hoping he can maintain the support of Black voters, even as his failure to deliver on voting rights legislation and other issues has left some loyalists dispirited. Of the many challenges he confronts as he enters his second year, few are as important as retaining the strong backing from his party's base.
Just 6 in 10 Black Americans said they approved of Biden in a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, down from about 9 in 10 who approved in polls conducted through the first six months of Biden’s presidency.
“I’m perplexed. At some points, I’m angry. I’m trying to see if there is anything redeeming,” said George Hart, 73, a professor and faculty adviser to the student chapter of the NAACP at Benedict College, a historically Black institution in Columbia. “I’m just so disillusioned, I don’t know what to say.
“He let so much happen from the time he became president to the time that he actually introduced the measure, it was lost," said Hart, who supported Biden in South Carolina's primary. "And we are the ones, African Americans, Black voters, who are going to pay the penalties.”
Hart's was not a universal view in interviews with Black voters in South Carolina last week, but it is a worrisome sign for a president whose approval ratings are near record lows. Some Black South Carolina voters who long supported Biden’s campaign hold out hope for his administration, while those who supported him reluctantly — or not at all — say they’re unimpressed.
Dennis Brothers, who supported Biden “from the very beginning,” said he felt things were going “pretty well,” although he is frustrated by Biden not honoring a campaign promise to cancel — not delay — some amounts of student debt.
“That has been a disappointment,” said Brothers, a 31-year-old media specialist from Calhoun County. “I just hope that some of those promises that were made, are kept.”
In the next three years, Brothers said the administration should be more transparent about its goals, particularly on issues pertinent to Black voters such as a policing overhaul.
“We know that Rome was not built in a day,” Brothers said. “I’m not going to say he’s not trying, but I just wish he would try a little bit harder.”
Margaret Sumpter, a 64-year-old rural community advocate from Hopkins, blamed the stagnation of voting rights on congressional gridlock, not inaction from Biden, who she said was discovering that the bipartisan successes he had as a longtime senator didn’t necessarily translate to the presidency.
“I think that he could push a little harder with Republicans like Mitt Romney and some of the other folks to help him to get this passed,” said Sumpter, who backed billionaire businessman Tom Steyer during South Carolina’s primary but then voted for Biden.
“The same thing that they’re doing to him, they did it to Barack Obama,” she said. “Why? Do people think Republicans are going to treat him any differently, because he’s a white man? No.”
Others are less patient.
Travis Lincoln attended Biden’s first South Carolina rally in 2019 and even deejayed a later event, but ultimately backed tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang in the primary. Lincoln, who runs a Columbia homeless veterans organization, supported Biden in the generalelectionbut said he had been underwhelmed by Biden's presidency.
“His campaign sold us on the idea that he was going to support some Black issues, and that’s not really happened,” said Lincoln, 44. “The people that were in his corner thought that was going to be the best move for him. It was more political strategy than anything.”
On voting rights, Lincoln said he saw the effort as doomed from the start, due to known Republican opposition. Instead, he argued, Biden should have focused on other issues where progress could have been possible, such as expunging nonviolent drug-related offenses, an issue on which Biden campaigned but has not taken executive action.
Ra Shád Frazier-Gaines cofounded Amplify Action, a nonprofit that focuses on political engagement of Black men, and voted for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in South Carolina’s primary. In Frazier-Gaines' view, Biden has talked far more than delivered.
“Black people are the reason Joe Biden is president, and I don’t feel ... that there has been one time that he’s ever shown us a ‘thank you’ by way of policy,” said Frazier-Gaines. “Yes, his administration has given a lot of talented Black people opportunities to serve in different positions. All of that is cute, but that’s not doing anything to put food on the tables of Black families across the country.”
Still, Biden has retained the support of Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House and a powerful figure in South Carolina, especially among Black voters. Rather than fault Biden about voting rights, Clyburn has focused his criticism on the two Democrats who doomed the legislation, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Bre Maxwell, a Democratic National Committee member, dismissed the criticism that Biden had been anything but authentic with the state’s Black voters.
“I don’t think he would have wasted all this time just for it to be lip service,” said Maxwell. "I think he’s very genuine, and I think he wants to keep everybody happy."
Satisfied that Biden — whom he supported in the primary and worked to get elected — is doing a good job overall, veteran civil rights activist James Felder blamed not the president but “almost obstructionists” Manchin and Sinema for the voting rights failure.
“It’s really a setback for the party, and it’s a setback for the country as well,” said Felder, 82. “Two votes and two people holding up all the progress that we could make at this point.”
To Sumpter, Biden is doing as well as could be expected and has achieved some real change, such as the enhanced child tax credit.
“He’s living up to what I expected him to be able to do,” Sumpter said. “There’s only so much that a person can accomplish in that first year.”
