Bishop said he chose Howard "because of the tradition" -- the red brick buildings, the impressive résumés of the faculty, Howard's prestigious reputation.
He is aware, though, that some people think he doesn't belong.
"The people who are nice to me are genuinely nice, " says Chad Bishop, left, with Robert Jones at Howard.
(Dudley M. Brooks -- The Washington Post)
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"I don't want to offend you," a woman in a campus elevator once told him, "but I'd like to ask you why you decided to come here."
At other times, he has been called racist names and met more subtle hostility. He has been in classes where instructors have referred to "the white man" and made generalizations about white people that would have drawn fire if a white professor said the same about African Americans, he said.
"I was in the administration building and I had had a problem with something . . . and this lady who worked there said to me: 'Why are you here? This is for black people.'
"If she had been at a majority-white school and I had been black, she would have been fired."
Oddly, his relationships with white students are more strained. He feels more at home at majority-black parties at Howard than visiting predominantly white students' parties in Georgetown. Bishop said he rarely sees Howard's other white students taking an active role in campus activities, other than sports.
His southern roots have made him comfortable with some aspects of black culture, such as the food and music. "I eat my greens with my fingers mixed with my cornbread," he said. "I put my pork chops on bread and put hot sauce on it to make a sandwich."
The hardest gazes come when he walks across campus with black female friends. "It's like, 'What is she doing with him?' " he said.
But he has enjoyed his years at Howard. "I wish I could do it over again," he said. "This is a beautiful experience. The people who are nice to me are genuinely nice. This is like a family atmosphere.
"Not only did I get an academic education, I got a cultural education. . . . I don't believe I would have gotten that someplace else."
