Florida A&M University student Charrise Lane wants to bring a College Republicans chapter back to the Tallahassee HBCU. However, the 25-year-old pro-Black conservative has not found an on-campus adviser for the group.
If Lane successfully re-establishes the chapter, it would become the only official, active College Republicans club on an HBCU campus, but due to FAMU policies confirmed to NBC News by school officials, the on-campus organization may not happen without at least 10 members and a faculty adviser.
The public relations major said she has already reached out to several professors. “The two that responded said they couldn’t do it,” Lane said. “So it’s not like I’m not trying.”
FAMU’s assistant director of student organizations, Felicia Barnes, recommended that Lane contact more professors about the College Republicans club and confirmed that the university would welcome it back on its campus.
College Republicans had a presence on FAMU’s campus in the past but haven’t been active since the 2018-2019 school year. The club was established in 2015 by FAMU alum Marquise McMiller, who felt a need for representation in the Republican party.
The Rattlers’ campus isn’t the only HBCU that has welcomed the
club to campus before. GOP chapters were once active at Howard University, Morehouse College, and Central State University. According to the College Republican National Committee, the youth political organization, founded in 1892, is present on nearly 2,000 college campuses and boasts over 250,000 members nationwide.Lane, as a Black Republican at her HBCU, is not popular. She spoke on Instagram about a few occasions where her peers threatened her through FAMU’s social app, Fizz. In one message, a student wrote, “A n*gga like me would have you jumped by some locals,” while another said, “Please…don’t disrespect our prestigious HBCU. Take that sh*t [across] the tracks to FSU.”
Although she has received hateful and intimidating messages, Lane said the threats don’t faze her, and she gets pushback from both sides about her views and affiliation.
“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.”
Despite the constant political clash, Lane desired to be around her own people and left her predominately white college in North Carolina to transfer to FAMU. This school year, Lane linked up with a few of her classmates to attend a watch party for the presidential debate with the College Republicans at Florida State University.