North Carolina's historically black colleges are mobilizing for November 5, drawing on an activist history

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Scattered across North Carolina’s coastal plains and back roads are institutions that could be crucial in the battleground state in Tuesday’s elections — 10 historically black colleges and universities steeped in a history of activism.

Now, local student unions and other organizations at these schools have gone all out to galvanize a voting bloc of nearly 40,000 students. They do this as a graduate of the HBCU – vice president Kamala Harris – is a candidate for president.

Leading up to Election Day on Tuesday, the North Carolina Black Alliance has been working with every HBCU, and one predominantly Black institution in the state, to mobilize students throughout the early voting season and get them to the polls.

The Votecoming tour is a play on the HBCU homecoming season, a hallowed tradition at the schools. The hope is to educate students from top to bottom about who and what is on the ballot and get students voting early so they can avoid voter identification or registration problems, said Gabrielle Martin, the alliance’s campus coordinator.

The effort is impartial. But there is no doubt that the presidential candidacy of Harris, himself an HBCU graduate (of Howard University), is generating excitement.

Having Harris at the Democrats’ helm brings positive attention to HBCUs and gives them a seat at the table, said Justin Nixon, a senior and student president of government 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 the clear representation of what an HBCU can produce and has produced.”

Still, students say their efforts are about community involvement and not about taking sides.

“It’s really critical, especially during an election like this, that we students actually take control of something so important,” said Kylie Rice, a senior and student government president at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, the secretary of state’s Foreign Affairs. largest HBCU.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants and we realize the social footprint left for us. Now it is up to us to actually realize and maintain that same momentum.”

North Carolina’s HBCU students have been leaders in civil rights movements for decades.

For example, students at Bennett College in Greensboro, one of two all-female HBCUs in the country, protested a local movie theater in the late 1930s for editing black people out of films. In 1960, Bennett women known as Bennett Belles protested at a local lunch counter along with North Carolina A&T students.

“I feel like we’re making our former Belles, our big 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 gerrymandered, particularly in Greensboro, Charlotte and other cities, in a process that diluted their electoral power. North Carolina A&T students were affected because the university was too divided in two and rallied against the cards in response.

North Carolina is also saddled with it Voter ID battles and now, Hurricane Helene destruction that residents were concerned about could hinder voting.

“We want to boost early voting so that if there is a registration issue, an ID issue or a voting issue, students have time to seek redress so their vote can still count,” Martin said.

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

Local HBCUs have also hosted several other engagement events, including voter information sessions between faculty and students at Bennett College, curriculums to explain the importance of voting at Elizabeth City State University, and several game nights with Black fraternities and sororities.

North Carolina seems to be up for grabs since the Republican elections Donald Trump ‘s margin of victory here was just 74,481 votes in 2020, the narrowest of any state he won against the Democrat Joe Biden.

“That’s a razor-thin margin and North Carolina’s HBCUs alone are a significant voting bloc,” Nixon said. “So we play a big role in shaping the dialogue around politics and around issues within the black community.”

The Harris campaign is on an HBCU homecoming tour, including a stop at Shaw. The Trump campaign also plans to reach out directly to HBCU students, highlighting initiatives like the law he signed as president to establish permanent HBCU fundingsaid Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s black media director.

The push to recruit young voters is making North Carolina HBCU students a force in the final days of the campaign. “We’re Gen Z too and for us it’s 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 a say in what could be the most consequential election yet prompted Shelby Fogan, a senior and student government president at Bennett, to change her voter registration from her home state of Ohio to North Carolina.

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

Students want to know which candidates will best fight for HBCU funding locally and federally. These schools have historically faced financial challenges, despite the recent influx of funding.

Bennett lost its accreditation in 2019 because of its financial strength. Without accreditation, colleges cannot participate in federal programs, such as student aid. Bennett has received its accreditation back in 2023.

HBCUs have lower tuition costs, giving black students a greater opportunity to attend college, so the issue is important, said Aleah Crawford, a junior at Elizabeth City State University.

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

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

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

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

What students need to do now is use their voices, said Suzanne Walsh, president of Bennett’s student government.

“Our role,” Walsh said, “is to say, don’t let us be overlooked.”