President Joe Biden is the first sitting commander-in-chief to speak at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the most famous black church in America
President Joe Biden will on Sunday morning become the first sitting commander-in-chief to deliver remarks at the Atlanta, Georgia church that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once led.
Biden will reflect on the slain civil rights leader's legacy and discuss voting rights on what would have been King's 93rd birthday.
'The president will speak on a number of issues at the church, including how important it is that we have access to our democracy,' senior White House adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms - the former mayor of Atlanta - said before his trip.
Biden has not been to Georgia since January of last year, having steered clear of the Peach State during its tense midterm elections.
He and Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to speak at Ebenezer Baptist Church at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.
King was co-pastor of the church from 1960 until 1968, when he was assassinated by fugitive James Earl Ray.
Biden's appearance comes at the invitation of Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, who became senior pastor at the Baptist church in 2005.
Just over a month ago, Warnock secured his first full term in the U.S. Senate, narrowly beating Donald Trump-backed Republican football star Herschel Walker in an early December runoff.
Martin Luther King Jr. helped lead the congregation as co-pastor from 1960 until he was assassinated in 1968
The president is reflecting on the slain civil rights icon's legacy on what would have been his 93rd birthday
The president, whose job approval rating has hovered in the low 40s and even dipped into the high 30s at times, gave the Peach State a wide berth while making appearances in battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Colorado.
Biden's last appearance in Georgia came on January 11, 2022.
The president had delivered a fiery address on the need to pass voting rights legislation in Congress.
He tore into Senate Republicans and called on the chamber to abolish the filibuster, which would have let Democrats pass legislation with just their simple majority.
But the push to end the filibuster ultimately failed after opposition from conservative Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
Consequentially, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act never made it to Biden's desk.
His speech at the time had prompted outrage from Republican opponents of the voting rights legislation, after the president had compared those critics to infamous racists George Wallace and Jefferson Davis.
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