Harris returns to alma mater Howard University on election night

Kamala Harris will spend election night at Howard University, her alma mater and a historically black university in Washington DC.

The Democratic presidential nominee graduated from Howard in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in political science and economics.

She has maintained close ties with the school and often describes her four years there as the most formative of her life.

Howard's president, Ben Vinson III, said that it was the first time in modern history that a college campus has hosted a presidential election watch party.

Waiting with her friends to get inside was first time voter and first year student Kendall Claytor, who described Harris as a role model.

"As a black woman, I really look up to her," she said.

"You know, knowing that she came from the same place, like she slept in the same dorms that I slept in, she went to the same school, same classes and she’s able to make it this far. I think speaks volumes to us as students."

William Ward, 65, was playing music from the back of his bicycle for the crowd.

"I'm going to be 66 in December. I want to see history. I've seen the Obamas go in, which is history. And now I'm going to see a female go in."

Founded in 1867 and nicknamed The Mecca, Howard is one of the largest, and most academically rigorous, historically black universities in the country.

It produces more black PhD recipients than any other university in the country and currently serves about 11,000 students.

Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael and actor Chadwick Boseman are also among its alumni.

In her memoir The Truths We Hold, Harris described it as a place "you could come as you were and leave as the person you aspired to be".