Historically black colleges in North Carolina are mobilizing for November 5, drawing on activist history

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) – On North Carolina’s coastal plains and backroads lie institutions that could play a key role on the battleground in Tuesday’s election – 10 historically black colleges and universities steeped in a history of activism.

Now local student government associations and other organizations in these schools have mobilized to make a full-fledged effort to energize the nearly 40,000-student voting bloc. They do this as an HBCU graduate – vice president Kamala Harris – is running for president.

In the lead-up to Tuesday’s Election Day, the North Carolina Black Association worked with every HBCU and one predominately Black institution in the state to mobilize and provide student transportation to the polls throughout the early voting period.

The Votecoming tour is a play on HBCU homecoming season, which is a sacred tradition at schools. We hope to inform students from top to bottom about who and what is on the ballot and encourage them to vote early so they can avoid voter identification or registration issues, said Gabrielle Martin, the alliance’s campus coordinator.

These efforts are nonpartisan. However, there is no doubt that the presidential candidacy of Harris, herself a graduate of an HBCU (Howard University), arouses emotions.

Having Harris lead Democrats positively focuses attention on HBCUs and gives them a seat at the table, said Justin Nixon, senior and student body president at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte. “We have always said what we are capable of, but especially now we can truly say that this is a clear representation of what an HBCU can and has produced.”

Still, students say their efforts are focused on civic engagement rather than taking sides.

“It’s really crucial, especially in an election like this, that we as students actually take the reins on something this important,” said Kylie Rice, president of the senior and student government at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, the state’s largest HBCU.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants and we are aware of the civic footprint we have left behind. Now it’s up to us to actually achieve this and maintain the same momentum in the future.”

North Carolina HBCU students have led the civil rights movement for decades.

For example, students at Bennett College in Greensboro, one of two all-female HBCUs in the country, protested against a local movie theater in the late 1930s because it was showing films about Black people. In 1960, the Bennett women, known as the Bennett Belles, were joined by North Carolina A&T students to protest at a local lunch counter.

“I feel like we’re making our former Belles, our older sisters, proud and happy because they were behind so many movements, and now we’re here to make history ourselves,” said Lanell Jones-Huddleston, a junior at Bennett.

This spirit of activism has not waned.

In 2019, Black communities in North Carolina were subjected to gerrymandering, especially in Greensboro, Charlotte and other cities, in a process that weakened their electoral power. North Carolina A&T students felt it because the university did divide in half and in response they united against the maps.

North Carolina is also burdened voter ID court battles and now, Hurricane Helene destruction that residents were worried about could make voting difficult.

“We want to promote early voting so that if students have issues with registration, ID or voting, they have time to appeal so their vote can still count,” Martin said.

The tour kicked off on October 17, the first day of early voting in North Carolina, at Shaw University. It will end on Friday at Fayetteville University.

Local HBCUs also hosted several other engagement events, including teacher-student voter information sessions at Bennett College, class summaries explaining the importance of voting at Elizabeth City State University, and various game nights featuring Black fraternities and sororities.

North Carolina has seemed up for grabs since Republican times Donald Trump the margin of victory here was just 74,481 votes in 2020, the largest of any state won by a Democrat Joe Biden.

“It’s a slim margin, and North Carolina HBCUs alone constitute a significant voting bloc,” Nixon said. “So we play a big role in shaping the dialogue around politics and issues in the Black community.”

Harris’ campaign is part of an HBCU comeback tour that includes a stop in Shaw. Trump’s campaign also plans to reach out directly to HBCU students, highlighting initiatives like the bill he signed as president making it permanent HBCU fundingsaid Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s black media director.

The push to mobilize young voters makes North Carolina HBCU students a force in the final days of the campaign. “We’re Generation Z, too, and for us, this is the first time we’ve had a say,” said Jazmin Rawls, 20, a Bennett sophomore who introduced Harris in Greensboro in September and will be voting for the first time.

Having her say in what may be the most consequential election yet prompted Shelby Fogan, president of the Bennett senior and student government, to change her voter registration from her home state of Ohio to North Carolina.

“I voted absentee in Ohio last year in local elections, but I had to ask myself for this election, where would my vote count the most?” Fogan said. “For me, it’s North Carolina. We really should consider where our votes will have the most impact.

Students want to know which candidates at the local and federal levels will best compete for HBCU funding. These schools have long struggled financially despite the recent influx of money.

Bennett it lost its accreditation in 2019 due to your financial situation. Without accreditation, colleges and universities cannot participate in federal programs such as student aid. Bennett received its accreditation already in 2023.

HBCUs have lower tuition costs, which gives black students greater opportunities to study, which is why the issue is important, said Aleah Crawford, a student at Elizabeth City State University.

“Our funding is at stake,” Crawford said. If that passes, “people will have to figure out how to pay out of pocket to come here, and that, depending on your economic status, basically determines whether you can go to college or not.”

Elizabeth City is in a rural area that may be overlooked by political candidates. With fewer than 2,200 students, the school is the only local four-year college and is a major contributor to its growth, but students don’t always feel included, said Cashhmere Chaison, a junior college and student government official at the university.

“We really need to focus on ourselves and our students because we provide so much financial support to this city,” Chaison said. Not everyone sees us as part of the city. We need to make sure we defend ourselves, because if not us, then who?”

This sentiment is echoed throughout the HBCU community across the country.

Students must use their voices now, said Bennett student body president Suzanne Walsh.

“Our role,” Walsh said, “is to make sure we don’t get overlooked.”