A noticeable contingent of students from Bennett College were among the supporters at Vice President Kamala Harris’ Greensboro rally Friday evening.
There are nearly a dozen historically Black Colleges and Universities across North Carolina and the campaign is engaged in direct outreach with them.
Harris, a Howard University alum, recently issued a call to action to these students in an open letter.
“You vote has never mattered more,” the letter reads.
Bennett is one of only two all-women historically Black colleges in the country. Spelman College in Georgia is the other.
Self-described “proud Bennett Belle” Jasmine Rawls introduced Harris and described her excitement as a first-time voter.
“When I go to that voting booth, I will remember that Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz are the only candidates on that ballot that are fighting for a new way forward,” said Rawls.
Kamiyah McDowell, 19, — who is studying elementary education — said the debate was “nerve wrecking” to watch both as a college student and as Black woman.
McDowell says she’s most fearful about “how the public is going to react to the winner.”
“There is a lot of people that are rooting for Harris. There’s a lot of people that are rooting for (Donald) Trump. And I don’t know, a part of me feels like what happened at the Capitol is going to happen and I just hope it’s not that,” said McDowell recalling the violent assault of January 6, 2021.
“I hope we learned from these situations and how we can grow as a community of people, as a society and just move on from our differences with each other,” McDowell said.
