When Kamala Harris helped take over a Howard University building

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CrystalStansForKamala @crystal4obama 9m
#KHive Standing up for what’s right is in @KamalaHarris’ DNA.



____ Protesting injustice by taking over the administration building of Howard University — the oft-besieged "A" building — has been a rite of passage for generations of politically conscious students at the nation's preeminent historically black academic institution. But what if such a righteous eruption occurs during your first year on campus — when you're just beginning to taste independence and test limits? Would you be jeopardizing an auspicious launch in life? "It was a very scary thing to do," recalled Gwendolyn Whitfield, who was a freshman from Detroit in February 1983, when students marched on the "A" building once again. "I didn't necessarily know if we would get arrested or if we would get in trouble." She took courage from her new friend from Oakland, Calif. — a fellow freshman named Kamala Harris.

“Kamala had a fearlessness that, if it was something she believed in, she wanted to be actively involved, and actively engaged, and not sit on the sidelines,” Whitfield said recently when I called her at Sewanee: The University of the South, in Tennessee, where she is assistant dean of business education. “She was unwavering in her commitment. That’s what I remember. It wasn’t reckless, but it was just, you know, this is what we should do.”

To Harris, the activism felt natural. “I was born in that,” she told me while visiting her alma mater to speak to students at a women’s leadership forum in February. “My parents were active in the movement. So this was very familiar territory to me.”

The spark that prompted the 1983 sit-in was university president James Cheek’s decision to expel the editor of the Hilltop student newspaper, Janice McKnight — who had published a Howard employee’s accusation of discrimination against the university. School officials claimed the expulsion was because McKnight allegedly gave untruthful information on her Howard application. The fracas over freedom of the press ballooned to encompass student outrage over an array of issues, from apartheid in South Africa to Cheek’s seemingly close relationship with the conservative administration of President Ronald Reagan...

The sit-in ended peacefully Friday afternoon. McKnight was reinstated; Cheek did not resign — and it’s unclear how much really changed on campus because of the sit-in. But for Harris, it belonged to that aspect of a Howard education that lodges deeper inside than majoring in economics and passing free time in the main quad known as the Yard. It was being part of something conceived of, led and carried out by a cadre of young African Americans who felt unstoppable. “That was the beauty of Howard,” Harris wrote in her recent memoir, “The Truths We Hold.” “Every signal told students that we could be anything — that we were young, gifted, and black, and we shouldn’t let anything get in the way of our success.”


read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/when-kamala-harris-helped-take-over-a-howard-university-building/2019/04/29/aa44086e-50d2-11e9-8d28-f5149e5a2fda_story.html


Kamala Harris, right, protests South African apartheid with classmate Gwen Whitfield on the National Mall in November 1982.
(Photo courtesy of Kamala Harris)

[FailureToCommunicate]

1. "...this is what we should do."

Nice piece. Thanks for posting.

[guillaumeb]

2. Recommended.

Thank you for posting.

[lambchopp59]

3. So much of the 2020 election hinges on a candidate that gives Trump no quarter

Kamala would have the Orange Shitgibbon tongue tied, evidence branded, convicted beyond any reasonable doubt, groping for the "best (monosyllabic) words, the best" and spouting ridiculous conspiracy bullshit that only appeases the most deplorable of his base. Mrs Harris would manage to showcase what a jackassed carnival con man clown he projects next to her undeniably presidential authenticism:
Without even trying.
I'm hoping not to offend those who are behind other candidates with this, but I am afraid, very very afraid of the other frontrunners being bamboozled by Trump.
This is part of the democratic process, to discuss, to weigh the options, tell the pros, the cons, and discuss. Herding cats has it's sifting advantages, and the practically overnight stardom of the ex-vice as soon as he announced seems a bit... ahem... "fools rush in".

[DesertRat]

4. K&r