Harris' campaign focuses on black colleges for support

California Sen Kamala Harris has described her experience as a student at a historically black college as "one of the most important aspects" of her life. Now, her Democratic presidential campaign is using that experience to connect with voters.

Not only is she one of only two black candidates in a field that's expected to grow to more than 20 candidates, she's also the only candidate who attended a historically black college or university, commonly called an HBCU.

And she's the first major-party candidate to have graduated from an HBCU Washington's Howard University since Jesse Jackson ran for president in the 1980s.

To be sure, she is not the only candidate focusing on such institutions.

Massachusetts Sen Elizabeth Warren, New York Sen Kirsten Gillibrand and former Texas Rep Beto O'Rourke have campaigned at historically black colleges. So has the other black candidate in the 2020 race, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

At a CNN town hall last month in Orangeburg, home to two of South Carolina's HBCUs, Booker noted that his parents and grandparents were educated at historically black institutions and that "the majority of black doctors, black lawyers, black generals are produced by HBCUs."
"And you are told as a young black student that you do not need to make choices and fit into anyone's narrow definition of what it means to be a young black person in America."
Joann Berry, a 66-year-old who worked at South Carolina State for more than two decades, said that historically black colleges don't just give diplomas, "they're more like family."
"A lot of people said he couldn't do it and he won."
"We both went to Howard," said Harris, 54, and joked, "I was there before her."