Just after midnight, a few hundred yards from where Kamala Harris was expected to take the stage for her election night party at Howard University in Washington, D.C., a handful of students sat in a huddle.

They began their evening ecstatic, they said, ready to celebrate a Howard alum’s ascension to the highest office in the US.

The Democratic presidential candidate had chosen to return to her alma mater to mark the occasion, but later canceled the planned appearance as the mood soured and Trump’s victory began to look almost certain.

“I felt so excited, like this is history in the making,” reflected Cori Ross, 20. “No other campus has the future president, or at least the current vice president, on their turf.”

When the country’s first two swing states – Georgia and North Carolina – both projected for Donald Trump, the collective mood change was clear.

“We’re panicking,” said Ross’ fellow student Dru Strand during the “super stressful” experience of seeing the results.

The crowd in Howard’s Yard, the grassy square at the center of the university, began to thin out and seemingly hundreds of people streamed off campus on the cool autumn evening.

Those who stayed seemed to understand the enthusiasm from hours earlier, dancing and singing along to the music of Usher, Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé, coming from the speakers in the yard.

Just hours earlier on Tuesday, the mood on Howard’s campus had been jubilant, reminiscent of the joy and enthusiasm that characterized the early days of Harris’ presidential campaign.

Thousands stood outside under the night sky, ready to celebrate the country’s first female president.

Unlike Hillary Clinton, who made gender the centerpiece of her 2016 campaign, Harris mostly sidestepped discussions about identity and her campaign’s history-making potential.

And yet Tuesday night’s choice of location was steeped in symbolism, bringing Harris’ campaign to an end at Howard, one of the nation’s leading historically black colleges and universities (HBCU).

Many in the crowd were decked out in Howard merchandise, or in the regalia of Harris’ sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), the nation’s first black sorority, with the sorority’s signature bright pink color standing out in the sea of ​​people.

“It means a lot that she decided to come home,” said Patrice Williams, an AKA member who attended one of the nation’s HBCUs.

After months of polls showing the candidates virtually tied, early voting data gave the Harris team some reason for optimism: Women — who polls show are supporting Harris by a significant margin — turned out in record numbers.

And when early results showed Harris with modest leads in the crucial states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, the assembled crowd erupted in excitement, confident the night would tilt in her favor.

But that cautious excitement quickly gave way to fear as Harris’ path to the White House looked increasingly unlikely, blocked by Trump’s mounting state victories.

“It’s extremely nerve-wracking,” Ross said. “I feel like people don’t understand what’s really at stake. By the end of the week, so much could change that we could be living in a completely different country.”

Others spoke of their fear of another contentious election, worrying that violence would break out regardless of the outcome.

Howard student and Harris supporter Kimathi Talton, 20, called it a “lose-lose.”

“If Trump wins, that is obviously bad. “But even if Kamala wins – God willing – I have no doubt that Trump supporters will respond with violence,” he said. “I am very afraid of any outcome.”

By the time Pennsylvania — perhaps the most crucial of all swing states — was expected for Trump, Howard’s campus had been virtually cleared. Large projection screens beamed down onto a bright blue Harris-Walz sign on a largely deserted campus.

Kabila Magnum, 31, was one of the few remaining supporters.

Magnum, wearing pink eye makeup to mark her own AKA membership, felt the mood change in real time, a sudden deflation in the crowd around her.

“The energy dropped,” she said. But she retained a stubborn optimism: There were still votes to be counted.

‘We’re not done yet. It’s not over until it’s done,” she said.