Harris returns to alma mater Howard University on election night

The Democratic presidential nominee describes Howard as a place 'you could come as you were and leave as the person you aspired to be'

Kamala Harris will spend election night at Howard University, her alma mater and a historically black university in Washington DC.

The Democratic presidential nominee graduated from Howard in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in political science and economics.

She has maintained close ties with the school and often describes her four years there as the most formative of her life.

Howard's president, Ben Vinson III, said that it was the first time in modern history that a college campus has hosted a presidential election watch party.

Mr Vinson said the university was already "incredibly proud" that the first woman of colour to serve as vice-president was among its alumni.

"We are also honoured that she has chosen Howard as the place to potentially make history again."

Classes were cancelled on Tuesday to give students the best opportunity to vote.

Harris supporters gathered outside the school before the watch party began.

Among them was Cheryl Taylor, the Howard alum who tapped Harris as a freshman to join Alpha Kappa Alpha, the country’s first black sorority, which was founded at Howard in 1908.

Members of AKA and other black sororities form a tight-knit national network that helped boost Harris's presidential bids this year and in 2019.

Even at the age of 19, Ms Taylor told the BBC, Harris stood out as a leader.

"She was amazing. Beautiful, smart, a good person," she said.

Ms Taylor was moved by Harris's decision to hold a watch party at Howard, saying it was a recognition of the school's importance in her journey and the place that showed her the power of "black excellence".

And she shrugged off attacks aimed at Harris's racial identity, including from Donald Trump, who questioned her blackness.

"We don’t question that here," she said.

"To have one of our fellow Howardites to ascend to this level, and also to be a woman… it’s overwhelming." she added. "I'm just so happy to be here tonight."

Cheryl Taylor in a pink AKA sorority jacket, with fellow alum Lewis Long.

Waiting with her friends to get inside was first time voter and first year student Kendall Claytor, who described Harris as a role model.

"As a black woman, I really look up to her," she said.

"You know, knowing that she came from the same place, like she slept in the same dorms that I slept in, she went to the same school, same classes and she’s able to make it this far. I think speaks volumes to us as students."

William Ward, 65, was playing music from the back of his bicycle for the crowd.

"I'm going to be 66 in December. I want to see history. I've seen the Obamas go in, which is history. And now I'm going to see a female go in."

A Destiny's Child song was momentarily drowned out by cheers as screens showed Harris up in early returns from battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania.

"I know there's been a lot of work on the ground, and it's so good to see it pay off," said Harris supporter Danielle Sydnor.

William Ward, 65, said he came to witness history

Jerry Patterson walked into the Howard watch party with one eye on an election result page on her phone. "I'm really anxious," Mr Patterson said. "But cautiously optimistic."

Patterson, dressed in an all-green track suit covered in Kamala Harris pins, joined an enthusiastic crowd packed into the Yard for the vice-president's watch party.

"We hope that things turn out well," he added, naming democracy and women's reproductive rights as his two most important issues.

And he said Harris had earned the country's top job, after three months making her case and laying out her agenda.

"If people don't understand it, that's because they don't want to hear."

Howard's way

Founded in 1867 and nicknamed The Mecca, Howard is one of the largest, and most academically rigorous, historically black universities in the country.

It produces more black PhD recipients than any other university in the country and currently serves about 11,000 students.

Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael and actor Chadwick Boseman are also among its alumni.

In her memoir The Truths We Hold, Harris described it as a place "you could come as you were and leave as the person you aspired to be".