At Harris’ election night party at Howard University, hope to witness ‘history’ turns to despair
LA TimesSupporters react to election results during an election night event for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at Howard University. Hours earlier, the possibility that Harris might become the first president to graduate from a historically Black college or university had animated much of the action on the Yard, where students and alumni were dancing even before Howard’s gospel choir sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the hymn adopted by some as a Black national anthem. Politics A political awakening: How Howard University shaped Kamala Harris’ identity The war on drugs had erupted, apartheid was raging, Jesse Jackson would soon make the campus a staging ground for his inaugural presidential bid. “I wanted to be a part of history — good, bad or indifferent,” said Camille Thelemaque, 38, a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, a historically Black institution.