WASHINGTON – The auditorium in the Blackburn Center was at full capacity on Thursday January 28th, 2010 as expected when the first African-American woman to run a major presidential campaign visits Howard University. The third annual Charles W. Harris Lecture brought the esteemed political strategist Donna Brazile to campus before attentive students, faculty and staff. As dozens of people arrived hoping for seats for this highly anticipated event, crowds gathered in the doorway of the auditorium while others lingered in the hallway. Security directed the those who could not find seating in the auditorium towards an overflow room where speakers carried the veteran campaigner’s passionate and inspirational message.

Executive Director Chris Bradshaw with Donna Brazile

The hour-long lecture titled the “Fierce Urgency of Now,” cast an air of a fireside chat in such an intimate setting. Drawing from Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy, Ms. Brazile – with her usual candor and good humor – summoned students to answer the call to action. “As the President said in last night’s State of the Union address, this is not the time ‘to run for the hills,’” Brazile said. “…You will not get a letter of invitation to serve. Don’t try to find a title. It is not about you, but it is about us, our nation and our world.”

Her accomplishments as an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist, television political commentator, Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the Democratic National Committee, and former chair of the DNCs Voting Rights Institute provide an insight into American political life that can be matched by few, if any. From her vantage point, the exigent circumstances presented today would have moved Dr. King with a unrelenting determination. “He would remind us of the fierce urgency of now,” said Brazile of the slain Civil Rights icon. “Long before the ink on the stimulus bill was dry, he would demand that the funds get to the communities in greatest need.”

The veteran Democratic political strategist’s clarion invocation to service sounded much like a reverberation of Dreaming Out Loud’s very own mission and vision, as team members from the organization sat listening intently in the overflow room. As she fielded questions from the audience, one particular query about the possibilities for change in the recession hit home as she responded, “Even without a job, I still had a cause and a mission.”