Howard University’s capstone moment: Kamala Harris at top of the ticket

WASHINGTON — As a young college student, Kamala Harris made the nearly 3-mile trip from Howard University to the National Mall to protest against apartheid in South Africa.

In 2017, as a senator, she returned to her alma mater to deliver the commencement address.

In July, when she received word that she would be likely be the Democratic presidential nominee, she was wearing her Howard sweatshirt in the vice president’s residence.

Howard, one of the nation’s best known historically Black colleges, has been central to Harris’ origin story, and now, as she seeks to become the first woman elected president, the university is having a capstone moment.

The school has produced luminaries like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, whose legacy inspired Harris to attend Howard, and author Toni Morrison, among others. Some at the university see Harris’ elevation as vice president as another validation of one of the school’s core missions of service.

“There’s clearly a direct relationship between Howard and its relationship to democracy and the democracy that we envision, one that is practiced in a way that includes all of us,” said Melanie Carter, the founding director of the Howard University Center for HBCU Research, Leadership and Policy.

If Harris won

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