Thousands of HBCU students will vote for the first time this November

Thousands of HBCU students will vote for the first time this November, and many will engage with what is a convoluted political process for the first formal time. There’s a first for you, too: the stories you’ll read here are unique. You haven’t seen them in other local or national media sources, because other media can’t do their work with the vantage point of a student.

Both the higher education sector and our political sphere have changed some since we did the first of these guides back in 2020. I have not — I still care deeply about student journalism, and I care deeply about HBCUs. Kamala Harris is a Howard University alumna. For the first time in our nation’s history, an HBCU alum is campaigning with a major party in pursuit of the presidency. Such a fact has placed HBCUs into the national consciousness in a way that has not been the case in recent history. Who better to help chronicle the nuances therein than the students who are intimately familiar with their campuses? Both major party candidates will tout their support among these groups — Donald Trump has and will continue to tout efforts that the federal government undertook during his term to forgive debt some HBCUs accrued cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina.

You’ll read about political disengagement, and what schools do to keep certain groups from becoming apathetic about their place in this world. Elected students on HBCU campuses also have a bit to say about the elections process at the federal level, having gone through a process of their own within a student-run government. Political socialization at these institutions is distinct in some ways, too, and several experts spoke to that phenomenon.

There was a time not too long ago where the students’ great-grandparents might have been barred from voting or reporting professionally. As we trudge through this election season, the nature of our political communication and the ways in which college students understand and engage with our political milieu should be front of mind. If nothing, the history of these institutions should be a constant reminder of their relative importance where the electorate is concerned, and I’m blessed to have support from Flytedesk, the Society of Professional Journalists, and others in helping students report again this time around.

In the same way that they ask salient questions in their work, we should all be asking ourselves how we can better understand how our country and our communities run. Journalism is under attack in some parts of this country, and in much of the world, but these students’ work is a reminder of the impact that telling these stories have. Our hope is that you enter the polls knowing a bit more about some of the forces that can influence your vote, or the people you plan on voting for. Thanks for reading, and thanks for caring about the nation’s historically Black institutions.'

The ReNews Project exists to bolster student newsrooms on these campuses, and to make more pointed, robust journalism possible there. If you’re interested in starting or restarting some version of student media on your campus, please reach out: renewsproject@gmail.com