Vice President Kamala Harris announced that her campaign has launched an HBCU Homecoming Tour across battleground states. While the announcement has raised some excitement, some students have raised concerns about possible safety hazards that the event may create.
Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, released a tentative tour schedule on Sept. 28 that includes visits to several HBCUs in the nation including schools located in key battle states such as North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Amani Clark-Bey, junior broadcast journalism major and sports administration minor from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania expressed his enthusiasm saying, “We’re obviously all behind her so it’s good that she’s coming back for homecoming. It’s the 100th homecoming too so it’s perfect timing.”
The tour is scheduled to include stops at Howard University on the weekend of Oct. 19, alongside North Carolina A&T State University and Clark Atlanta University.
The tour will conclude with a visit to Morehouse and Spelman College, on the weekend of Oct. 26.
Jasmin Harris, the campaign’s Black media director, emphasized the significance of this timing in an MSNBC interview, saying that HBCU homecoming season is an ideal time for the campaign to connect with Black voters, outlining the important issues at stake in the election.
As plans develop for the tour, the director clarified that the vice president may not be at every stop.
“It is still being decided where the vice president will be, but we are excited about this,” she said. “We will be dispersing national and local Black leaders and surrogates across the country and battleground states during this HBCU homecoming season.”
Bill Gage, former Secret Service special agent, expressed that Howard students may need to prepare for “pretty significant disruptions,” if Kamala Harris does appear on campus during their scheduled stop at Howard.
“She’s the vice president of the United States, setting aside the fact that she is running for president. She is the current sitting vice president, and they have a pretty substantial protection package,” he said.
Gage continued to explain that students shouldn’t be surprised by seeing armored limousines and a motorcade as long as 15 to 20 vehicles if the vice president does come to campus.
Students have expressed similar concerns about the possibility of Kamala Harris visiting campus.
Jasmine Vaughn, a first-year sociology major from Lawrence, New Jersey said, “I am not surprised by what’s happening right now, especially being here in D.C., but honestly I’m kind of excited. However, I am not excited about the amount of people that are coming to campus.”
Sophomore political science and history double major, Marjorie Simmons from Lawrence, New Jersey, echoed similar sentiments.
“I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to see her, but I’m a little bit worried about campus security. Considering last year, how wild it was, this is the 100th homecoming, so Kamala Harris coming is pretty big,” she said.
Marlow Buckner, a junior TV and film major, political science minor from Chevy Chase, Maryland explained what she would like to see on campus for her to feel safe during the event.
“In order to really ensure people’s safety, I feel like they need to close down campus. Close the gates, have better security around,” she said. “And I feel like there also should be some type of metal detector or something that’s regulating who’s coming in and out.”
After acts of violence occurred at neighboring HBCUs before last year’s homecoming, Howard released a statement emphasizing Howard’s commitment to keeping students safe.
The 2024 presidential election itself has sparked worry about safety on campus, amongst members of the Howard community.
Daryl Harris, the interim chair of the political science department at Howard, discussed the history of political violence in America and how today’s climate mirrors the turbulent past.
“There is a saying that violence is as American as cherry pie or apple pie – it’s like a pastime,” he said, as he reflected on the long and complex cycles of political violence that are embedded in the country’s history.
Daryl Harris said this is not a new phenomenon, but the violence we see today feels “uniquely volatile.”
Polls corroborate Daryl Harris’ claims, as a growing number of Americans now believe that political violence is justified under certain conditions.
A survey from December 2021 conducted by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland revealed that a significant portion of the American public agrees that violent actions could be justified in cases where democracy seems to be at risk.
The poll highlighted that the growing divide in the U.S. political landscape “underscores the heightened risk of violence in the current political environment.”
This was the case in the run-up to the 2022 midterms, where there were several reports of election-related violence, from threats made to election officials to physical altercations between opposing political groups.
A report from Time Magazine highlighted instances of politically motivated violence occurring during those midterms, including the targeting of campaign offices, threats to candidates and an increased focus on political extremism.
These attacks align with more recent occurrences of violence within the past three months, like the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump on July 13 and Sept. 16, and the shots fired at one of Kamala Harris’ campaign offices.
“If that could happen to vice president Harris, what’s stopping that from happening to Howard?” Buckner said.
Daryl Harris believes that this political turmoil is exacerbated through rhetoric, especially with figures like Trump and individuals in the Republican Party fueling the fire.
“It is almost always incited by some political figure, and they don’t always do it openly, they do it indirectly,” he said, commenting on how Trump’s accusations against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio led to widespread acts of terrorism.
“If you think about Donald Trump and his campaign and the current iteration of the Republican Party, it is clear that they feel that political violence is legitimate,” he said.
During the current election period, Daryl Harris asserted that any form of political violence that we “see or even anticipate is coming from the Donald Trump campaign.”
This is similar to Kamala Harris’ call to action during the 2024 presidential debate where she urged Americans to “stand for rule of law” and “end the chaos.”
“Donald Trump has said that there will be a bloodbath if the outcome of this election is not to his liking,” Harris said, alluding to the comments made by Trump during a speech he delivered while campaigning for 2024 Senate candidate Bernie Moreno.
As the HBCU tour unfolds, one thing is certain to former special agent Gage: students will see an extreme increase in security presence regardless of the crowd’s demeanor.
“Students should be ready to start seeing guys with earpieces and suits on,” he said. “Clearly Howard would be a very friendly crowd but the Secret Service is not going to let their guard down and keep the protective model the same, regardless of whether it’s a perceived friendly crowd or not.”
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
