When the TV networks announced that President Barack Obama had clinched Ohio and won a second term on election night, many college students around the country celebrated. In Washington, D.C., a number of these young people — who were a key constituency in giving Obama a boost over GOP nominee Mitt Romney — rushed downtown to Pennsylvania Avenue and celebrated outside the White House.
The atmosphere was just as celebratory — if not more so — at the nation’s historically black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs. After all, the country chose to reelect the nation’s first African-American president, despite rough economic times, so countless watch parties were hosted on election night at these campuses.
But Harold Booker, a senior at Morehouse College, wasn’t joining in the festivities. Instead, he watched the election results from his dorm room, alone.
Booker is a rarity at an HBCU: a Republican.
“I tell people all the time, if you look at the African-American community — especially in the South — we’re very much so socially and fiscally conservative,” Booker said. “When you look at the policies of the Democratic Party, they don’t represent our families and communities, and what they need to grow and develop.”
Read more at the Huffington Post.
