And his ticket has some built-in support: Howard alumni rode behind Harris during their 2016 senatorial campaign and the primary run of 2020. Biden his decision to add the California senator and former prosecutor to the Democratic ticket makes Harris not only the first Black woman nominated as president of a major party but also the first graduate of a historic Black college or university (HBCU). It’s a new burst of energy injected into the HBCU community’s involvement with the presidential race.
“Howard really paved the way for a lot of the HBCUs and the meaning of (Harris) at the top of the ticket is just really showing the value of HBCUs and … how transformative this would be for us,” Charlie said Lewis, late 1989 graduated Howard. “We have more than 86,000 alumni and we are not all monolithic,” Lewis continued. “We come across the whole diaspora, the African diaspora. That is unique. And she takes a part of that. ”
Howard University President Wayne AI Frederick described seeing a Howard alumna on the Democratic ticket as both “humbling” and “exhilarating.” Harris and her team, he said, have shown that they are aware of the unique challenges facing the African-American community and want to help them remedy them, but they cannot do it alone.
“She’s clearly going to be a champion and that’s good,” Frederick said. “But we, as a population, must continue to push for broader reform, etc. and recognize that it will take all of our elected officials to participate at the federal, state and local levels.”
Members of the Howard network maintain that the unique political and cultural education that the university offers sets the standard for its success as Black leaders in America. The most notable alumni are Thurgood Marshall, Elijah Cummings and Stokely Carmichael. Harris’ time on Howard coincided with a pivotal era of black political activism, from Jesse Jackson’s first presidential run to the international protests against apartheid in South Africa.
Even when Harris’ colleagues from Howard graduated recognized the historical importance of their selection, they emphasized that symbolism is not enough. In particular, they hope she and Biden are willing to take into account their data from the past – her as a local prosecutor, his as the architect of the 1994 Crime Bill – and the way that policy helped pilot harmful systems that are particularly harmful were for Black communities. It is perhaps the biggest obstacle to Biden and Harris’ efforts to ride the same ballot that Democrats have overwhelmingly supported for decades.
Jade Agudosi, a graduate of Howard in 2018, said that although she is excited about Harris’ nomination, she does not subscribe to the mantra that it is enough to “black faces in high places.”
“There needs to be more involved,” said Agudosi, who was president of the Howard Student Association when students occupied the university’s administrative building in 2018. “There is work to be done.”
After developing a reputation in California as a pragmatist on crime, Harris has shifted her approach in recent years. As a senator, her legislative record has been markedly more progressive than in the past, including sponsoring a number of pieces of legislation to reform criminal justice alongside her Democratic and Republican counterparts. In June, she co-authored the Justice in Policing Act, which aims to standardize police force tactics and independently investigate cases of ill-treatment.
“In my career, the conventional wisdom has been that people were either soft on crime or strict about crime. But I knew we had to be smart about crime, “Harris said in her inaugural address to Howard’s Class of 2017, explaining her work to reduce recidivism rates as a district attorney. Challenging the status quo in making substantive improvements to Black communities was not easy goals, but, she said, she learned the playbook through her Howard education.
Her statements from her past prosecutor were not enough to win over the coalition of black, brown and young voters she had hoped to appeal to in the Democratic presidential primary in 2019. Her big bet on South Carolina, the early primary state thought as a snapshot of preference for Black voters, but only marginally paid. Before Harris stopped her campaign for president last December, Harris barely broke through the top three choices among Black voters.
Yet, in the face of the high stakes of November, even those who did not support Harris as their past policies now offer the benefit of the doubt. That is echoing in recent polls, which have found their addition to the Biden ticket has the support of a majority of voters about races and ideologies. A flash poll of Morning Consult voters found that 84 percent of all Democrats and 79 percent of Black voters approved of it.
‘I try not to square it. She was a lawyer. And hell, I can think of a bunch of things I probably disagree with. And that’s the same thing for probably all the other elected officials here, “said Ras Baraka, the current mayor of Newark, who graduated from Howard in 1994.” However, I believe her idea of America encompasses us in it. And her idea of what should happen is different from what we are experiencing now … and whatever problem I have with her, she deserves a pass. For the time being. ”
Supporters of Harris say she is more than willing to address issues over her record on law enforcement.
“She has never chosen the path of least resistance,” said Kirsten Allen, a Howard alumna who was Harris’ national press secretary during her presidential campaign. ‘When she would do interviews, especially since we were in the process of doing business [during the presidential campaign], she would start many questions about her attorney record with the statement, ‘I understand why black and brown people have a problem with prosecutors, I fully understand your concerns.’ “
Since Biden’s VP announcement last week, questions about Harris’ loyalty to the Black community have returned as GOP talk points. Harris supporters say their choice of college answers many of them.
“If you choose to move to Howard living in Canada and come from California, you are making an affirmative decision about blackness,” said Keneshia Grant, an associate professor of political science at Howard University. ‘If you choose to place and stay in the sorority, stay active with it after you leave school … and all these other things, like, she makes multiple affirmative decisions about Blackness . She embraces it. ”
Grant, who had quietly thought that Biden would vote for a Black woman for his vice presidential card in recognition of the value Black voters bring to the Democratic Party, said she was surprised at how immediate and vehement Harris’s criticisms were. .
“People did not even take a moment to carry the historical character of their name to the ticket,” Grant said. “I understood why people had these feelings about criticizing them, but I did not understand why they could not make progress.”
For some, the reluctance to acknowledge the gravity of her accomplishments seems to be a more deceptive trend among her rejects, who have pointed to specific career decisions to make comprehensive calculations about how deserving the Black vote might be.
“The reality is, we made this mistake in the Black community in 2016,” said Ravi Perry, chair of the political science department at Howard. ‘I think if we allow ourselves to pass on these narratives, this time we’re shooting ourselves in the foot again, whether it’s Hillary Clinton and’ super predators ‘, or the crime law or Anita Hill, or Kamala Harris.’ lawyer record. ”
In the absence of personal campaign events and because college courses take place for the most part online, the involvement of each campaign with students in advance will be limited until November. HBCUs for Biden remains active and has held events for the campaign in the wake of the announcement of Harris’ vice presidential election. HBCU degrees, however, remain an untapped source for campaign and fundraising.
Kamau Marshall, the director of Biden’s strategic communications campaign, said in a statement that Biden and Harris recognize “the important role that Black colleges and universities play in our society” and that, “America can expect the Biden Harris- administration is committed to ensuring a more equal, sustainable and prosperous future for these saved institutions. “He said the campaign plans to continue expanding the range of HBCUs for Biden by lying in Harris’ connections with the HBCU community as an alumnus.
While Biden’s interview with Black voters tops 90 percent, it is certain that her enthusiasm for November support translates into crucial importance. With a Black woman and HBCU degree on the ticket, Democrats have a chance to close the enthronement gaps costing Hillary Clinton the White House in 2016.
“HBCUs are a touchstone in African American society. They mean a lot to all of us, ”said Lodriguez Murray, Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs at the United Negro College Fund. “The good education, the turnaround services, the economic empowerment – that create loyalty in that community and galvanize that loyalty for any candidate would be a game changer.”
