Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., is referred to as the “Mecca.” Since 1867, it has been a gathering place for Black people in the U.S. and from all over the world. Among its alumni are former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Vice President Kamala Harris. It was the location where Harris chose to give her concession speech on Wednesday.
I was there covering the event, but it wasn’t my first time visiting Howard’s campus. While attending college at Syracuse University in New York, my friends and I took road trips each year to Howard’s homecoming, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary in October. But the jubilant atmosphere that usually surrounds events on The Yard, the main quad on campus, was replaced by a somberness on Wednesday as crowds gathered to hear Harris’s concession speech.
People of all ages and races stood on campus where remnants from election night were still visible. Many were Black women who had attended Harris’s watch party on Tuesday night and had returned despite not getting much sleep.
“I feel like if I’m gonna be here to celebrate with her, then I also should be here when she’s accepting her loss in this case,” Gaelyn Smith, 26, a D.C.-native, said.
This sort of support has buoyed Harris’s campaign since its outset when some 44,000 participants swamped a Zoom call organized by Win With Black Women founder Jotaka Eaddy. That call and coinciding ones raised $1.6 million in one evening.
Smith says she also voted for Clinton in 2016, and the loss feels similar. “Some time from now, maybe I’ll feel hopeful, maybe I’ll feel different,” Smith said.
Deborah, (who did not share her last name), a Black woman in her 70s, and a second-generation native Washingtonian, was at Harris’s concession speech as well.
”I felt like this was a good way to bring closure for myself,” she told me. She also brought her young grandson, making it his first political event. “The possibility of having Kamala Harris as our president just meant the world to me,” she said.
Regarding the next four years, Deborah said she has both hope and dread.
“I hope that we can see something different than what we’ve been shown throughout Donald Trump’s campaign,” she said. “But because of the way he ran his campaign, and the people who surround him, that sort of leaves me with a little feeling of dread of what might come.”
Waiting for Harris to take the stage, I also heard the “Skee-Wee” call as members of her sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc greeted each other. Founded in 1908 at Howard, it now has more than 1,000 chapters in 11 countries and all 50 U.S. states.
When Harris took the stage and began her speech just before 4:30 p.m. the somber crowd began cheering voraciously, but many also shed tears. Harris said accepting the election result is “a fundamental principle of American democracy,” in addition to loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, conscience and God.
“I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time,” she said during the speech. “But for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here’s the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars — the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.”
As I was taking notes, at one point, I put down my pen and pad to comfort a young supporter who began weeping. Attendees gathered around her with words of comfort: “It’s going to be okay” and “We’ve got this.”
Although supporters grappled with their aspirations for a Harris presidency coming to an end, there was a sense of resilience while exiting The Yard, and feeling that the history-making there will only continue.
