U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders made a stop in Greensboro as he campaigned for the Democratic nomination for president, and higher education — and how to pay for it — was a key theme.
Sanders spoke before a standing-room-only crowd in a chapel on the campus of Bennett College. He was joined in the town-hall-style event with a panel that also featured rapper Killer Mike, actor Danny Glover, and author and political activist Cornel West.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at Bennett College during a campaign appearance on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. PAUL GARBER/WFDD
Sanders was asked by a student what he would do for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He said he would push for free tuition at public colleges and HBCUs and greatly expand Pell Grants.
Sanders also said he'd cancel all student debt in America.
“What that will cost is about $2.2 trillion over ten years,” he says. “We pay for that with a tax on Wall Street speculation.”
Sanders also said he'd work to legalize marijuana and offer a program to expunge the records of those who can't work or get loans because of prior marijuana convictions.
Bennett College President Suzanne Walsh said Sanders is the first presidential candidate to speak at the college since Shirley Chisolm in 1972. Sanders spoke from the same pulpit Martin Luther King Jr. used when he spoke there in the 1950s.
Sanders also rallied Thursday night at UNC-Chapel Hill.