One Year In, Has Biden Had Our Backs?

<p>It’s been one year since Joseph R. Biden Jr. was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/biden-sworn-in-as-46th-u-s-president-with-unprecedented-inauguration-99759685835" target="_blank">sworn in</a> as the 46th president of the United States, assuming office in the middle of a deadly <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/coronavirus" target="_blank">pandemic</a>, and the most significant push for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/americas-racial-reckoning" target="_blank">racial justice</a> the country has seen since the Civil Rights era.Amidst the social <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/in-a-divided-america-polarization-touches-everything-120230469961" target="_blank">polarization</a> promoted by former president Donald Trump, Biden inherited a House of Representatives where his party holds a razor-thin majority, and an evenly divided Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris provides Democrats with the tie-breaking vote.</p><p>Biden’s election win, as well as his party’s control of Congress, would not have been possible withoutBlack voters. After a late entry into the 2020 race, and a poor showing in early contests,61 percent of Black Democrats in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/south-carolina-exit-polls-more-black-moderate-voters-turn-out-n1146046" target="_blank">South Carolina</a> chose Biden in their state’s primary, breathing life into his nascent campaign. In the general election, Blacks in urban centers helped Biden secure wins in key <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/how-black-voters-key-cities-helped-deliver-election-joe-biden-n1246980" target="_blank">swing states</a>. And in Georgia that year, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/it-s-too-important-now-record-turnout-black-voters-fuel-n1245416" target="_blank">record turnout and Black voters </a>helped Biden win the state’s Electoral College votes and send two Democrats to the Senate, giving the president’s party control of the chamber.</p><p>In his victory s