Pictured are former vice president and likely Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden, and Democratic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (wearing eye glasses), who last week suspended his campaign for president and on Monday announced his endorsement of Biden for president

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief. Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com.

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM –  Just five days after he announced he was quitting the race for president U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday endorsed former vice president Joe Biden, his former rival for the Democratic nomination, Biden the likely presumptive nominee poised to take on incumbent president Donald Trump for the November general election.

"We need you in the White House. I will do all that I can to see that that happens, Joe," Sanders said during a live-stream social media broadcast with Biden that was orchestrated by the Biden campaign.

He urged Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike to come together to rally behind Biden's bid for the presidency, Biden a former U.S senator who served two terms as vice president from 2009-2016 under former president Barack Obama, the nations' first Black president.

And he said President Trump "is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country."

A self-described socialist Democrat, Sanders quit the race for president on April 8, making the announcement during a live -stream presentation, also on social media.

He said then there was no clear path to the nomination.

"I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful, and so today I am announcing the suspension of my campaign," Sanders told supporters.

In dropping out of the race he said said that the campaign between Biden and Trump will likely be "a pretty rough and I suspect pretty mean campaign."

Considered a long shot in 2016, Sanders won 23 primaries and caucuses and 43% of pledged delegates in his loss in the  primary to Democrat Hillary Clinton, who got 55% and went on to win the nomination, only to lose the general election to Trump months later.

His political platform advocating for a $15- an-hour minimum wage, income equality, criminal justice reform and free college tuition and healthcare for all resonated with voters, younger voters in particular, and activists and progressive voters.

He fought all the way to the Democratic National Convention relative to his 2016 loss of the nomination to Clinton, forcing the Democratic National Committee to change its rules on superdelegates, who now only get a vote on the first ballot unless the outcome is uncertain.

During his bid this time around he nearly won Iowa, coming in second place, and he went on to win New Hampshire and Nevada, Biden, powered by the Black vote and an endorsement from Black U.S. Rep James Clyburn, later winning South Carolina, and Super Tuesday, and never looking back.

By the time he called it quits last Wednesday he said his campaign lagged behind in more than 300 pledged delegates, Biden with 1, 217 pledged delegates and Sanders with 914, a candidate needing 1,991 delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.

A Republican with a strong base of supporters, President Trump still lags behind him in nearly every poll, including Quinnipiac, CNN, and Emerson polls that have Biden anywhere from four to seven percentage points ahead if the election were held today, the Emerson poll showing a Biden Trump election night showdown in November at 53-47%.

Only the conservative-leaning Fox News poll shows the duo tied at 42-42%, the president often offended and on the  attack if political polls suggest he might be out of a job next year.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Black residents of Cuyahoga County, Ohio's second largest county of which includes Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs, are testing positive for the coronavirus in a disproportionate fashion in comparison to their White counterparts, news that follows statistics in New York City that show that Blacks are dying at at twice the rate of Whites there, a trend developing around the country, data show.

Thirty-nine percent of the 1,021 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in Cuyahoga County are Black, the Board of Health reported Friday.

Cuyahoga County has a population of some 1.2 million people and is roughly 29% Black.

It currently has some 1152 cases and 23 confirmed deaths, a disproportionate number of them Black, sources say.

The rate of cases is at 30 percent as to Blacks in the county for those who identified themselves as Black, a racial disparity based on those accessed that puts the Black community on notice.

In contrast, data also show that counties in states such as Illinois, Louisiana,  Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida Blacks have three times the rate of infections and four times the rate of deaths, poor Black communities suffering even more, partly due to poverty itself, little or no healthcare, and apathy, racism, transportation barriers, ignorance, and demographics.

New York City, however, has the worst coronavirus stats of all from a national standpoint.

Whites in in the big city are dying at roughly 10 per 100,000, city officials and its mayor have said, and Asians nearly nine per 100,000.

On the other hand, Black deaths relative to the crippling flu-type virus that has no cure are doubling those of Whites at 20 per 100,000 and Latinos in New York City are topping the chart at an even higher death rate of 33 per 100,000.

The state of New York leads the U.S. with over 195,031 cases and 10,056 deaths , followed by New Jersey with 65,584 cases and with 2,443 deaths, and then by Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Louisiana, respectively, Florida, Illinois, and Texas rounding out the top 10 states with the most coronavirus cases, and deaths.

The virus has spread to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. and the nation has nearly 577,729 reported cases and some 23,115 people dead,  worldwide figures showing that there are 1.9 million cases globally and roughly 118,546 deaths.

It is grim news for a nation on the brink of a recession as fear gropes the country and unemployment claims rise to an all-time high at nearly 22 million.

Public health officials and governors in 43 states and Washington, D.C. have put out stay-at-home orders requiring that people remain at home except for essential such as food, healthcare, an essential job, and taking care of a loved one, Midwestern and southern states , namely Arkansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Iowa and Nebraska, refusing to bow to pressure and issue such orders.

Some governors are taking heat from state legislatures like Ohio Gov Mike DeWine, with some state legislators, even in his own Republican party, calling on him to call off the state's stay-at-home order.

President Donald Trump has declined to issue a national stay-at-home order saying states need the autonomy to decide on their own.