Why did Harris choose “Black Harvard” as her election night party? | news
Howard University, where Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will spend election night Tuesday, is a major institution for educating black students in the United States, and Harris attended it in the 1980s.
Howard University, which is called “Black Harvard” and is headquartered in Washington, DC, occupies an essential place in the US Vice President’s career, and she has often visited it since her graduation in 1986.
In 2019, Harris said from this university when she was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, “Howard University is one of the most important aspects of my life… This is where it all began.” Hence, the presence of Harris – who may elect the country’s first black president tomorrow, Tuesday – at this university carries many symbols.
The US Congress established this private university in 1867, shortly after the end of the Civil War that ended slavery throughout the country. The university bears the name of Oliver Howard, a Northern general who was largely involved in organizing the education of former slaves.
Since its founding, Howard University has become the most famous among the 100 institutions known as historically black universities, and it now receives a large majority of black students and other minorities.
Howard University includes about 11,000 students, and huge buildings of red brick and white columns, spread around a large central park, in accordance with the traditions of building American universities.
Harris went to this place in mid-August to continue training in preparation for her debate against Donald Trump, and she told some students, “One day you may become candidates for the presidency of the United States.”
Howard University has graduated great figures, such as Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, and Thurgood Marshall, the great lawyer of the civil rights movement in the 1950s who became the first African American to be appointed to the Supreme Court.
This man inspired Kamala Harris, who decided to specialize in law at Howard University like him, starting in 1982.
During her studies at the university, Harris joined a debating club, participated in protests against apartheid in South Africa, and participated in the occupation of a campus building during a student movement.
Harris also joined a sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, which was founded in 1908 in Howard, and includes tens of thousands of black women from all over the country, forming a network that the Democratic candidate relied on in her election campaign.
