It was at Howard that Kamala Harris' political identity began to take shape. From evanhalper:
. Thirty-three years after she graduated in 1986, the university in the nation’s capital, one of the country’s most prominent historically black institutions, also serves as a touchstone in a campaign in which political opponents have questioned the authenticity of her black identity.
“There was nothing unnatural or in conflict about it at all,” Harris said. “There were a lot of kids at Howard who had a background where one parent was maybe from the Philippines and the other might be from Nairobi,” she added. “Howard encompasses the diaspora.”Who’s running for president and who’s not »
Campus politics were not always gentle. There were fights over where voting machines would be placed, and the hours they would be open. Student leaders tangled over how aggressively to confront a college administration perceived as too cozy with the Reagan White House.
Harris, whose parents took active roles in the civil rights movement through the 1960s and into the 1970s, was familiar with the spirit of activism. But not on the scale of Howard, with so many black intellectuals and activists and future leaders all in the same place.When you go to Howard, said longtime Howard political science professor Alvin Thornton, your particular ethnic makeup was irrelevant.
“You then are in an environment where everything tells you that you can be great, and you will be given the resources and expectation to achieve that, and the only thing standing in the way of your success will be you,” she said. “You don’t have to be limited by other people’s perceptions of who you are.”
Harris would take ribbing one moment about her cropped haircut and coat with the pointy collar that called to mind Peter Pan, then would be tearing an opponent to shreds on the debate floor the next. “It was a very tough crowd,” said Rosario, now an entertainment lawyer in the Washington area. “I was one female who got through, and I thought she might be able to as well. She had spunk.”
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