HBCU News - She wants to start a College Republicans chapter at an HBCU

By Marquise Francis

Charrise Lane, a senior at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, wants to re-establish what would be the only active chapter of College Republicans at a historically Black college or university. There’s just one roadblock: She can’t find an adviser for the group to be recognized on campus.

According to FAMU guidelines, no student organization can become official without one.

“I’ve reached out to professors,” said Lane, a 25-year-old public relations major and registered Republican.

“The two that responded said they couldn’t do it,” she said, adding, “So it’s not like I’m not trying.”

While rare, College Republicans have had homes at HBCUs in the past. As recently as 2016, there were at least four HBCUs with GOP chapters: Howard University, Morehouse College, Central State University and FAMU.

The College Republican National Committee, which has been around since 1892, is an unofficial affiliate of the Republican National Committee. The group touts a presence on nearly 2,000 campuses across the U.S., according to its website. While there are more than 100 HBCUs in the country, none are home to an active, official College Republicans club.

The national organization did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Lane said she and three other classmates have met at least twice this school year in an unofficial capacity, and attended a presidential debate watch party with Florida State University’s College Republicans. But being unable to form the organization on her own campus, where 7 in 10 students are registered as Democrats, has been frustrating. FAMU has consistently been able to field an active chapter of College Democrats.

“I believe that Black people are needed on both sides,” said Lane, who noted that her conservative views have been heavily shaped by her Christian upbringing.

In a four-minute video posted to X this summer, Lane explained that she is a Republican because she believes in a strong traditional family unit, has a more holistic view on preserving life, including opposing abortion, and supports school choice among other issues — values she said are representative in the history and ideals of the Republican Party, but not necessarily reflective of the voices that are currently at the forefront of the GOP.

Because Lane and her like-minded peers aren’t being catered to on campus, she said she won’t give up on her quest to bring a chapter of College Republicans back to FAMU.

School officials told NBC News that any new campus organization needs at least 10 members and a faculty adviser with at least three years’ standing at the school to become a registered student organization. In certain circumstances, FAMU is open to working with students — but they have been unable to successfully partner with Lane to date.

Felicia Barnes, assistant director of student organizations at FAMU, said the university would welcome the College Republicans back to campus. This week, Barnes shared names of more professors for Lane to reach out to.

“They’ve been here before, so it’s not like it hasn’t been the organization here,” she said.

Lane recognizes that, in many ways, as a self-identified pro-Black conservative at an HBCU, she is an anomaly, sitting at the intersection of what some critics would call contrasting ideologies. She’s been ridiculed, she said, by “both sides” that argue her traditional politics are often at odds with her own desire for progress for Black Americans.

“From Republicans I get called a Black supremacist and sometimes they say that I race bait, and then, from the Dems, sometimes I get called an Uncle Tom” and other racial slurs, she said, for her affiliation with Republicans.

“Sometimes you don’t fit in with either side when it comes to your opinions.”

Still, she said, after transferring from a majority white private Christian college in North Carolina last fall because she didn’t connect with many of her classmates or professors, she yearns to be around her people — even if most of those around her disagree with her political views.

History of College Republicans at FAMU

The last time the College Republicans had an active chapter at FAMU was during the 2018-2019 school year, according to alum Marquise McMiller.

Currently leading government relations for one of Florida’s largest public school systems in Orlando, McMiller re-established the organization during his junior year in 2015 and led the group as president for three years, he said, before someone else took it over in its last year before going dormant.

“At FAMU, the College Democrats are always prevalent,” said McMiller, who earned a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and a Juris Doctorate from the school. “I felt like there needed to be representation for the other party.”

At the time, McMiller said the chapter had six members that met regularly, and while there wasn’t significant backlash to the organization on campus, he said the group’s presence did make some students on campus uncomfortable.

McMiller, who describes himself as an evangelical moderate and fiscal conservative, said that the current political landscape on campus is far more hostile than it was years ago.

“It was not as polarizing of a time as it is now,” he said. “And I’m certain that, given the policies of the governor and the stances that the Legislature has taken with the supermajority, the climate at FAMU is probably not responsive … to stand with the Republican Party.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, in recent years has taken aim at diversity, equity and inclusion efforts including restricting how race can be taught in school, blocking the teaching of AP African Studies classes, and defunding diversity programs at public colleges.

Lending support to Lane, McMiller sees the push to once again establish the College Republicans chapter on campus as a “novel effort.” But while McMiller is still a registered Republican, he has grown disillusioned with his party and said he is unsure of how he will vote in November.

“It is my strong position that African Americans shouldn’t be a part of either party,” he said. “I think both parties do not give the African American community its full attention.”

College Republicans back at FAMU?

The decision to push to bring back the College Republicans at FAMU for Lane didn’t happen overnight, nor has it been a particularly comfortable undertaking for her. With more than 70,000 followers on Instagram and X, Lane is a prominent voice within young, Black conservative spaces. She chose to spend her first year at FAMU not speaking publicly about politics on campus, in hopes of building an organic community with those around her, especially after failing to doing do so at her previous school.

It worked for some time, she said, but when people in her orbit began to notice her on social media, many of the relationships she built with people on campus shifted. Now, she doesn’t know who to trust. Most weekends, Lane said she finds herself working or keeping to herself after being menaced online for her stances.

“People have threatened to go fight me,” Lane said. She said she’s received intimidating messages against her and her mission through an anonymous social app called Fizz, where FAMU students have to login with their school email address to get access to campus-specific posts. “And being threatened these days doesn’t faze me, but being threatened by students, it kind of shook me a little bit because these are my peers.”

She detailed some of the threats, along with screenshots, in an Instagram video.

Tevon Blair, a co-founder of Xceleader, a nonprofit group that empowers HBCU students and alumni to be leaders, said it is “important for HBCU campuses to offer spaces for students to explore all political perspectives.” It allows students to make more informed political decisions.

Still, said Blair, who leads the nonprofit group’s Vote HBCU Program, “HBCU students, specifically those located in Southern states, often see the direct impact of Republican-led state legislatures on their education. This includes chronic underfunding of state-supported HBCUs and the introduction of laws that influence how students vote, learn, and experience college life.”

About a month from the presidential election, Lane said she will continue pushing to re-establish the College Republicans as a new administration at the school gets put in place. Regardless of what happens, she doesn’t expect the entire campus to like her, she said, but she does expect respect.

“At the end of the day, politics is politics,” she said. “You shouldn’t threaten someone’s life over it.”