It is strange that in America, a country full of racism, classism and sexism, the presidential candidate advocating for the rights of minorities, free college education, equal pay for women and economic equality is a 74-year-old white man from Vermont. Bernie Sanders radical views have rallied up masses through hopeful promises such as refinancing student loans and the federal legalization of marijuana. Sanders has even been picked as a favorite among the highly critical Black Twitter, exhibited through a series of memes and photo edits. So, it was natural for Sanders to go on an HBCU tour. Compared to Hillary's "African Americans for Hillary" movement, Sanders specifically focused on college students. The final stop of his tour was on February 16, 2016 at Morehouse College’s Forbes Arena.

Before the official program, the crowd was entertained by selections from Morehouse’s band and a step from Omega Psi Phi Chapter from Morehouse College. The official program started with a sequence of notable black people sponsoring Bernie Sanders, including rapper and social justice warrior Killer Mike, Representative Justin Bamberg who defended Walter Scott’s family in the trial against police officer Michael Slager, and former Clinton supporter Senator Nina Turner. The first speaker was Jasmine Guy, "A Different World" star and an icon in the Atlanta University Center(AUC). She expressed that she had never seen so many people at Morehouse College before. This was probably true because among the many students and faculty from the AUC there was a plethora of dreadlocked white guys, hipster white women with marijuana socks, local college and graduate students, black brown and white families, senior citizens, and babies.

Initially, the line that stretched from Forbes Arena street entrance to CAU’s promenade, about a 3-mile distance, seemed like a glimpse of solidarity and interconnectedness across a spectrum of demographics. However, some members of the diverse crowd had no true idea of the historical ground they stood on, a ground that Martin Luther King and Juilian Bond walked on; the ground of a school that has had President Barack Obama speak at its commencement ceremony. I was a volunteer for the event. My task was to have people in line register through the website. It came to my surprise that when I asked people in line to type in the website, they did not know how to spell “Morehouse.” Another experience that made me realize that people in attendance had no idea of the significance of the event they were attending came from a conversation I had with a middle-aged man. He was expressing his frustration with the HBCU express line having first priority, then the college student line having second priority, and the community line having last priority. He followed his complaint by saying, “We are the ones that are voting.” It made me wonder if he knew he was at an event apart of an HBCU tour, and that Bernie Sanders came here to speak to us; that we vote too. The majority of the people in line felt that Sanders understood their needs, but did everyone in line understand each other?

The supporters in the audience, no matter how separate and different their lives were gathered together under the ideals of one person. Bernie Sanders overlapped the concerns of people from a breadth of demographics; that is equality. Yet Sander's ideas of equality are dubbed radical. This idea of "radicalism" is why America, the number one country in the world, still lacks some of the basic things other countries experience freely. For instances, Sanders discussed how every other major country has free healthcare but America. Sanders believes free healthcare is the right of all people. He even worked on the committee to write the Affordable Care Act.

All the contentions of Sander’s speech focused on fixing broken parts of America’s systematic oppressing structures. From a rigged economy to "bring[ing] justice back to the criminal justice system", he detailed ways to make America more egalitarian. Sanders explained that we live in a country where Goldman Sachs can pay its way out of jail after giving out faulty loans that helped facilitate the recession, but a kid who gets arrested for marijuana possession has that on his record for life. Continuing on this point, Sanders expressed his disdain for America having the most people incarcerated in the world. He followed by declaring, that after one year of him in the presidency this will no longer be the case. Instead of investing jails he wants to invest in education and jobs because he believes inadequate education is another causing factor to high incarceration rates.

Even though incarceration rates are high many people don't even make it to the jail cell. Police brutality and violence has become fatal in America. Every day a new name is added to victims of the genocide against black bodies. Sanders wants to limit this by creating police departments that reflect the diversity of their communities. Also, Sanders calls to "demilitarize the local police departments". Understanding that police have a hard and dangerous job, Sanders noted and gave respect to that. However, he also stated that these same officers need to be held accountable for their actions.

"Lethal force should be the last result not the first result." -- Bernie Sanders

Sanders hit every hot button issue, especially the ones that HBCU students are concerned about. A top issue was affordable higher education. Sanders knows that America can not succeed without an intelligent population. He also understands that smart and wiling students can not afford college. Sanders wants to eliminate student debt by refinancing student loans to the lowest interest rates. Also, his highly favored free tuition for college and universities idea is another way he plans to make college more affordable. At the rally a lot of students were excited about this idea but to an extent. As HBCU students, we all attend privately owned institutions. So, how will this plan effect us. Well a possible theory is that if publicly owned colleges and universities become free the demand for them will go up. This will result in a decrease in the amount of people trying to go to privately owned institutions. So, as the demand for privately owned schools decreases the price will as well.

"Why are we punishing people for the crime of getting a higher education?" -- Bernie Sanders.

Sanders wants to create a world where every kid knows that if they work hard they can go to college. There is so much wasted intelligence because it is not affordable to develop your education. Sanders mentioned that youth unemployment for graduate high school students is at 51%.

Sanders discussed many marginalized groups from gay rights to equal pay for women. By advocating for so many minorities, he has bound them together. The back of the volunteer t-shirts for the rally read "Join the political revolution today," but what does a political revolution where people marginalized due to race, sexuality, socioeconomic status, religion, gender, and religion come together as minorities and form a majority look like? When these struggles are lumped together, everyone's needs aren't met. Even within seemingly specific movements like the Black Panther Party, there was the marginalization of black women. So, is it possible for Bernie Sanders to fulfill his promises to everyone?