Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has been protesting injustice since her first year as a student at Howard University.
What We Know…
- Harris participated, along with 150-200 students, in a sit-in in 1983 following the unfair expulsion of her classmate, Janice McKnight.
- While Howard University Administrators claimed McKnight’s expulsion was due to falsified information on her application, students believed McKnight’s expulsion was due to a story she had written about discrimination at Howard. The sit-in was successful and resulted in the reinstatement of McKnight.
- Friend and former classmate of Harris Gwendolyn Whitfield said, “Kamala had a fearlessness that, if it was something she believed in, she wanted to be actively involved, and actively engaged, not sit on the sidelines.”
- In her memoir, Harris wrote she participated in demonstrations during her freshman year “almost every weekend.” She also was elected the freshman representative on the Liberal Arts Student Council. The Los Angeles Times reported that Kamala has since claimed this election was her “toughest political race.”
- Harris told the Washington Post that activism has always felt natural to her. She has attributed her interest in political activism to her time at Howard and her parents, who were activists themselves.
Clearly an activist at heart, Harris seems to be attempting to continue to fight against injustice in her campaign for the 2020 presidency.
