Homecoming Season 2026 is officially here! We’re celebrating the proud HBCU alumni couples living, laughing, and loving together.
There is nothing on the planet quite like an HBCU homecoming.
The exciting tailgates with red Solo cups and good eats in abundance, the can’t miss halftime show (better known as the 5th quarter), the feel-good brunches, the lit parties, the impromptu Swag Surfin’ that can happen anywhere the mood hits, the energetic Divine 9 step shows, the multigenerational beauty of alumni chopping it up with current students, the hugs that assure you although life is life-ing, everything is going to be alright. Oh…and the football game. The atmosphere is equally empowering and spiritual because in between all the joyous celebrations, we are reminded of the brilliance and tenacity of our brave, visionary ancestors who built HBCUs more than a century ago. The pride is palpable.
In honor of this joyous and celebratory time for our culture, we’re honoring those couples who graduated from HBCUs, sometimes even on the same campus, and are now living their best lives together. Our Love on the Yard series is an intentional and necessary spotlight on Black love, Black excellence and Black joy!
COUPLE: Candace & Kenneth Montgomery
COLLEGE ATTENDED: Hampton University
MAJORS: Candace: Psychology + Kenneth: Political Science
CLASS OF: Candace, 1996 + Kenneth, 1994
PROFESSIONS:
Candace: Experiential Architect
Kenneth: Lawyer
YEAR THEY BECAME A COUPLE: A very long time ago but officially around 1996/1997.
HOW IT ALL STARTED: Kenny: We started dating for real in 96/97 if my memory is accurate. We first met my freshman year, introduced by a mutual friend while Candace was on a High School Day visit. She was beautiful, but in high school and I was in the big leagues at that point; no dating high school girls. We officially met again on campus in the Student Union with friends and I saw the prettiest woman I had ever seen with her head deep in a book and big burgundy rimmed glasses. Like Fonzi from Happy Days, I sent my boy Mark, who knew her, to tell her she was beautiful.
Candace: He’s right, we met on my high school college visit and when we were introduced he looked down at me and barely acknowledged my presence. I was some young kid outside the club, LOL. Fast forward to the Student Union: When Mark came over and said, “My friend over there thinks you’re cute.” I looked up to see Kenny standing there with that child-like grin I have come to know and love. I later saw him again at a party with a friend and we said hello. He ripped off the top of a test paper that had an A+ on it and handed me his number. I thought to myself, well he’s smart, my mom will like that.
The rest is history.
WHAT THEY LOVE MOST ABOUT EACH OTHER: Kenny: I think what I love most about Candace is her beautiful spirit; she is as beautiful inside as she is outside, and she has a cheerful spirit. She is also really goofy, funny, super intelligent, and has a very sweet, intentional soul. I think she almost always means well even when we disagree.
Candace: I love that Kenny makes me (us) feel safe, our shared deep love for our mothers, that he’s always evolving which inspires me, his big brain and that he stands firm in his convictions. I love his heart, he cares deeply about his community; he will give his last to help someone; his last dollar, his time; whatever to help someone. He is also funny and not too shabby to look at either (still swooning ladies).
DO YOU ATTEND HOMECOMING TOGETHER? Kenny: I have attended a handful of homecomings in the past, but I’m not a frequent flyer. When I go, I really value the friendships lost due to time and distance. It feels like Groundhog Day sometimes. In our own way, many of my friends and I were kind of city kids from Brooklyn, Newark, and other Black urban cities during a time when we were kind of anti-social to some of the ideals that came with going to Hampton. Do not get me wrong for one minute, though; the brotherhood, friendships, and my relationship with my wife are pivotal in shaping my personhood and value system.
In many ways, my relationship with my wife is a journey of high-level storytelling, with adversities and triumphs. As kids, we both dreamed of having a future together through our own perspectives of the world, and it actually happened. Then we had to keep figuring it out while holding onto our own perspectives and intentionally sharing them. What Hampton provided was the space and time; we had to and have to do the work, though, to fill that time and space with intention, love, accountability, and a real life, not some cliché life. Our relationship has helped me see that time isn’t really linear; it’s captured in moments. Those moments Hampton provided us were really short to me but so meaningful. No, they were not like A Different World (LOL). They were real. It was a safe space to learn ourselves and each other. I hope young people who are in love keep investing in each other and trying to learn from each other. I think too often we stop investing in knowing each other. I think Candace and I are still invested in that, and being kids in college and in love gives us a warm mutual grounding.
Candace: I have gone to my fair share of homecomings over the last few years and will be going this year because it’s an anniversary year. It’s a good way to see my friends. I love the energy, the nostalgia, the fact that we all share something that feels like our community recharging itself in this safe contained space where it’s unique to us but we all understand. I think the universe had plans for us and Hampton was clearly a stop on the roadmap of our lives. For that I am grateful. We have built a beautiful life, not a fairytale but a big, noisy, complicated and enriched life anchored in love.
Passing the torch: Candace and Kenny’s eldest son Stone graduated from Hampton in 2025. (Photo courtesy of subjects)
