President Obama Visits Greensboro To Stump For Clinton, Hold Town Hall

President Barack Obama is visiting Greensboro to campaign for Hillary Clinton Tuesday. But he'll also stop at North Carolina A&T State University for a town hall event on leadership, race, activism and other issues facing young men of color.

While Obama has taken criticism from some corners for not using the bully pulpit to talk more about race in America, this town hall event is the latest effort by the White House to move the discussion forward. The discussion is scheduled to air Tuesday night on ESPN.

Perhaps the most visible effort by President Obama to reach out to communities of color came in 2014, when he announced a task force called My Brother's Keeper. The group aims to partner with communities to use data-driven methods to close the opportunity gaps faced by young black men.

Both Greensboro and Winston-Salem are My Brother's Keeper communities.

Broderick Johnson is chairman of the task force. He says Obama's visit to Greensboro, along with a separate Tuesday visit from the MBK team, is a chance for the community to get a better idea of the work the White House and community leaders have undertaken.

"Here in North Carolina we have an excellent opportunity over the next several days to lift up that work and to talk about those issues and to get people engaged and responding to the president's call to action," Johnson says.

The visit comes just weeks after protests erupted in Charlotte over the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott – a black man – which once again highlighted the difficulties surrounding race in America. 

Despite that tension, Johnson says the work going on with MBK communities is morally and economically vital.

"As the president says, this nation – in order to compete globally – has to field a full team," Johnson adds. "We cannot afford, given that, to leave millions and millions of boys and young men of color or anyone else in this country behind. We need everyone to be participating."

There are now more than 250 My Brother's Keeper communities across the United States. And while Obama's Tuesday visit is not explicitly a part of the program, Johnson says it's the kind of outreach the president plans to do for the rest of his life.

"I am determined and optimistic that we can make sure of that especially, again, boys and young men of color are no longer seen – when they achieve – as exceptions to the rule, but in fact it's just the way they live their lives and the opportunities that they have," Johnson said.