At Howard University, Rand Paul Issues Appeal to Black Voters

Howard Students Question Rand Paul's Vision Of GOP (NPR)

Rand Paul going to one of the top historically black colleges in the U.S. and trying to school students on who founded the NAACP?

Priceless.

Rand Paul going to one of the top historically black colleges in the U.S. and trying to make a case for his Republican Party as a historic and continuing defender of the civil rights of African-Americans?

Not boring.

And, judging from the reaction the Kentucky senator received Wednesday at Washington's Howard University, less than persuasive.

"I'm happy that he came, that he reached out," said Howard grad Dawn Hay, 29. "But it felt like a plea."

And there were times it felt insulting, she said, if not intentionally.

Paul, a libertarian considered a potential 2016 presidential contender, forgot the name of the first popularly elected African-American senator in the U.S., who just happened to be Howard graduate Edward Brooke, a Republican who represented Massachusetts in the 1960s and '70s.

And he drew groans and guffaws when he asked those in the crowded auditorium if they knew that black Republicans founded the NAACP in the early 1900s.

"We know our history," Hay said of Paul's question. "This is now; that was in the past."