A. Peter Bailey of the New York Daily News –
Two historic firsts were established by then Sen. Kamala Harris — the first woman and first person of color to be elected vice president of the United States. But few are aware of another historic first achieved by Harris — she is also the first graduate of a historically black college or university (HBCU) to be elected to this office.
The general public’s lack of awareness about this achievement is not surprising.
Many are probably unaware that lawyers such as Thurgood Marshall and Oliver Hill Sr., who played key roles in the war against legal “whites-only” segregation, and Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, who played major roles in the Civil Rights Movement — which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act — were all HBCU alumni.
