Kamala Harris’s favourite spot when she studied at Howard University in the 1980s was a large, grass-covered area in the middle of campus called the Yard. She would stand there and watch the musicians playing instruments and the medics leaving the lab, the students laughing together. “That was the beauty of Howard,” she wrote in her memoir.
“Every signal told students that we could be anything – we were young, gifted, and black – and we shouldn’t let anything get in the way of our success.” Forty years later, the Yard was where Harris hoped to declare her ascension to the American presidency. But it was not to be.
There, yesterday afternoon (6 November), in front of a small crowd of supporters, staffers and Howard students, she conceded defeat. Her uplifting tone was unbowed. She delivered a message of defiant hope.
“My heart is full today – full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country and full of resolve,” she said. She sought to inspire her supporters to continue the fight against the type of politics which Trump represents, a politics she left undefined. “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign – the fight for freedom,” she said.
“Don’t ever stop trying to make the world a better place. You have power. You have power.
” It was surreal. Her positivity created the impression that Harris hadn’t really lost, that the entire reason for everyone being there was .
