As a young student, Kamala Harris walked nearly three miles from Howard University to the National Mall to protest apartheid in South Africa.
In 2017, as a senator, she returned to her alma mater to deliver the commencement address.
In July, when she learned she was likely to be the Democratic presidential nominee, she wore her Howard sweatshirt to the vice president’s residence.
Howard, one of the nation’s most famous historically black colleges, played a central role in Harris’s origin story, and now, as she seeks to become the first woman elected president, the university is experiencing a pivotal moment.
The university has produced such luminaries as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, whose legacy inspired Harris to attend Howard, and author Toni Morrison, among others. Some at the university see Harris’s rise to vice president as a further validation of one of the university’s core missions: service.
“There is clearly a direct relationship between Howard and its relationship to democracy and the democracy that we envision, a democracy that is practiced in a way that includes all of us,” said Melanie Carter, founding director of the Howard University Center for HBCU Research, Leadership and Policy.
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If Harris wins the White House, she would be the first woman elected president and the first graduate of a historically Black university to hold the office. While many HBCUs, like a number of liberal arts colleges, are struggling financially, her rise has bathed Howard in a positive light.
“It allows students to go further than they thought possible,” said Nikkya Taliaferro, a senior at Howard University in Honolulu, who said the 2024 presidential election will be her first time. “Even if she doesn’t win, she’s already made a huge impact and I know for all of us, that alone is unforgettable.”
For Stefanie Brown James, a Howard alumna and co-founder of The Collective PAC, which works to increase Black political representation, Harris’ rise underscores to Howard that “all the pieces are coming together. Right now, she is the personification of leadership, of excellence, of the global responsibility of service that Howard represents.”
In her 2017 commencement address, Harris said Howard taught her to reject bad choices and steered her toward public service. In her memoir, she wrote that Howard taught that students and graduates should “use their talents to take on leadership roles and impact other people, our country, and perhaps even the world.”
In an Instagram post reflecting on her time at Howard, she wrote: “Along the way, Howard taught me that even though you may often find yourself the only person in the room who looks like you or has had the experiences you’ve had, you have to remember: you are never alone.”
Earlier this year, she wrote in a Facebook post that investing in HBCUs is an investment “in the strength of our nation for years to come,” as she welcomed Howard’s men’s basketball team to the White House as Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions. HBCUs have historically struggled to generate investment, despite recent influxes of funding and donations, causing them to fail financially.
Rep. Summer Lee, a Pennsylvania Democrat who graduated from Howard Law, said the “camaraderie of everybody teaching somebody” at Howard shaped how many former policy students approach their work. “It allowed us to support each other in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to at any other institution,” Lee said. “Those principles of social engineering, of not sitting on the sidelines and creating public policy that is rooted in the experiences of the most marginalized people. That’s a Howard trait.”
The Howard network is also providing financial and organizational support to Harris’ campaign. The Collective PAC used its HU Bison PAC, which hosted a virtual call for graduates with more than 4,000 participants and raised more than $150,000, according to James. The Bison PAC is planning another call Wednesday.
On campus, a group called Herd for Harris is campaigning in support of her. Other student-led organizations are mobilizing students to register to vote and get involved in the presidential debates and policies that might affect them most.
“It happened instantly and Howard is the one responsible,” James said. “Something happens, we have to respond to it, so we get to work. Howard is just the one responsible.”
Although Harris enjoys broad support on campus, some students challenge him on policy issues, including the war in Gaza.
“What we expect from Kamala Harris in this election really comes from the morality that Howard instilled in us, that we are an oppressed people and we must also stand up for oppressed people abroad,” said Courtney McClain, a Howard student senator who met Harris in 2020. She said she plans to support Harris, while holding her accountable.
In the lead-up to the November election, Harris has been traveling extensively for her campaign and preparing for her first debate against Republican Donald Trump — including a mock session at Howard — on September 10. She did, however, take time to speak to the crowd of Howard’s largest incoming freshman class outside Cramton Auditorium.
Using a megaphone, she told them she was proud of them and encouraged them to enjoy the moment.
“You could run for president of the United States,” she said to thunderous cheers from the crowd.
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