Kamala Harris to Spend Election Night at Howard, the ‘Black Harvard’

Washington, USA:

Kamala Harris will watch Tuesday’s election night from the campus of Howard University – her alma mater – a fitting setting for what may be the most significant night of her life.

Nicknamed “Black Harvard,” the Washington School plays a central role in the US vice president’s biography, having returned frequently for key moments since graduating in 1986.

“Howard University is one of the most important aspects of my life,” she said in 2019 as a candidate in the Democratic presidential primary, “and it was where I first ran for my first elected office” as a student body representative.

“So this is where it all started.”

So her presence there on Tuesday night, when Harris could become the first black woman elected president of the United States, is deeply symbolic.

The U.S. Congress founded Howard in 1867, two years after the Civil War ended slavery in the largely Southern states where it remained legal.

The school was named after Oliver Howard, a Northerner known as a “Christian general” who promoted higher education for freed slaves.

Howard has earned a reputation as one of the best of about 100 institutions known as historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which attract mostly black and minority students.

Howard’s campus, home to approximately 11,000 students, features several imposing red brick buildings with traditional white columns arranged around a large central lawn, commonly known as “The Yard.”

It was at the amphitheater in mid-August that Kamala Harris prepared for her lone debate against Republican rival Donald Trump, telling students that someday “you might run for president of the United States.”

Famous Alumni

Howard’s most notable alumni included novelist and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and celebrated civil rights activist Thurgood Marshall, who in 1967 became the first black justice appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It was Marshall’s example, Harris later said, that inspired the future lawyer to choose Howard to study at the university in 1982.

There she joined a debating society and took part in anti-apartheid demonstrations.

She also joined Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), one of the largest sororities in the country, founded in Howard in 1908.

The AKA does not have presidential support, but its national membership of about 300,000 has given Harris a vast network of activist supporters.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)