"The spark that ignites the flame": Black sororities flex "collective power" for Kamala Harris

CHICAGO — Members of the Divine Nine, the collective of the nation's nine historically Black sororities and fraternities, stepped out at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week adorned in the array of bright colors and regalia that define their groups.

Sigma Gamma Rho sorority sisters sported blue and gold dresses. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers donned jackets and sweaters of black and gold. Some Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) members' bright pink or green attire — including ",LA" shirts and buttons referencing their soror — popped in the sea of attendees, while others opted for subtler signals of their membership like elaborate light pink and green brooches or the group's signature pearl necklaces.

Black Greek life participants offer Vice President Kamala Harris both an especially loyal voting bloc and experienced voter mobilizing force as she carries out her presidential campaign over the next 75 days. Though the groups, given they are registered charity organizations, do not endorse political candidates, the momentum generated by AKA member Harris' campaign has galvanized many of their millions of participants to enter a new realm of political engagement.

Drawing on the dedication to community service their organizations pride themselves on, Black Greek life members told Salon they feel inspired by what a potential Harris presidency makes possible for their advocacy in service of their sororities' and fraternities' missions.

"In our social justice, which is one of our tenets that we have, sisterhood, I think for us, we feel like we helped push and lifted this tide up and make it happen a little sooner than it normally would," said Grace Carrington, the director of the Democratic National Committee's Southern Region and a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta. Harris, "of course, being a part of Divine Nine, we feel some independent ownership of her career, her life, and also responsibility to take her over the finish line."

"This moment is the spark that ignites the flame for generations to realize it's our time," added James J. Fedderman, a Virginia delegate and member of Alpha Phi Alpha, arguing that now is the time to act if the organizations intend to take "sustainable" and "repeatable" action that they can use to encourage others.

"Members of the Divine Nine have come together to really unify this collective power that we've always had," said Fedderman, who wore an Alpha Phi Alpha-branded black bomber jacket. "This power that we have had has been the catalyst to promote, encourage, protect our communities, and we realize that this is our moment to ensure that future generations have a place and a space."

Black college students founded Black Greek-letter organizations in the early twentieth century to provide a safe haven for Black Americans amid the rise in Jim Crow laws and the rampant racial violence and discrimination they faced, which included being barred from participating in Greek life at predominantly white institutions. Alpha Phi Alpha was the first, established in 1906 at Cornell University, and AKA followed soon after in 1908, planting its roots at historically Black Howard University.

Over the more than a century since their establishment, Black Greek-letter organizations have developed individual cultures signified by chosen colors, slogans, clothing and traditions like strolling, a group-varied and exclusive form of choreography. The organizations, unified and governed by the National Pan-Hellenic Council, hinge themselves on tenets of personal excellence, racial uplift, civic action, kinship and — often most importantly — community service, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

"My great grandmother was an AKA in 1915, so when I think of women organizing back then to provide service to the community — we've always been organizers as any of the fraternities and sororities, that is what they do. That's what we do," Cook County, Ill., Commissioner Donna Miller, who is also an AKA, told Salon.

Through Harris' nomination and potential presidential victory, AKA members see that commitment to service "going to the highest office in the world," said Miller, dressed in a green power suit, hot-pink ",LA" shirt and cream-colored custom Chucks with the words "We are not going back" scrawled on the side alongside painted-on pearls that matched the real ones on her earrings and necklace.

"What better way to see someone giving back to our community than being the president of the United States and coming from an HBCU and being someone who came from a family that actually worked for a living," she added.

Harris pledged AKA in 1986 as an undergrad at Howard University and has remained an active member of the group in the years since.

The vice president addressed her sorority sisters at the organization's biennial national convention, or boulé, just ahead of her campaign's launch and gave remarks at the Sigma Gamma Rho boulé in July. During the former appearance, Harris recounted her history with the sorority, evoking the image of her aunt Christine Simmons, who joined the AKAs in 1950 when attending Howard herself.

“Sorors, this is a serious matter,” Harris told the audience of around 20,000 AKAs, per NBC News, making reference to the group's “serious matter” chant. “For 116 years, the members of our sorority have been on the front lines of the fight to realize the promise of America. This year, let us continue that work.”

Carolyn Williams, a member of Sigma Gamma Rho and the executive detail for the sorority's international grand basileus, said Harris' AKA roots provide a sign of what Americans can expect from her presidency should she be elected.

"She came from the same roots that we came from, which is stemmed from community service, and we know that she'll be focused in on taking care of the people — all the people," Williams told Salon, the blue rhinestones of her gold Sigma pin catching the United Center lights.

Harris has "already indicated that by talking about trying to cut the expenses that we're currently seeing," she added, noting that the Democratic nominee's ascension would "only make it easier for the rest of us to stay down in the trenches and work harder to support the communities that we live in."

The Divine Nine boasts more than 2 million members, including prominent activists, community leaders and philanthropists. The organizations prize lifelong membership and visibility within their communities beyond college years, with a swath of alumni chapters for each organization conducting service work in cities across the nation.

Members of Black sororities and fraternities are no strangers to political engagement either, having built practices of civic engagement around addressing community-specific inequities. Members told Salon their service activities have included volunteering to teach children how to swim amid high Black drowning rates, mobilizing to boost voter turnout and education in the face of voter suppression efforts, and organizing food drives during the height of the pandemic.

In 2020, AKA members also became key donors to the Biden-Harris campaign, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars through donations of $19.08, a reference to the sorority's founding year, in the week after the then-senator was announced as Biden's running mate.

Black Greek organizations also provide members with tight-knit support networks, connecting each other with jobs and resources among other opportunities for personal and professional development. The AKA network includes a number of prominent Black figures and Democratic mega donors, including Ava DuVernay and Wanda Sykes, who have supported Harris.

"That's why we're able to organize within ourselves as well, in our own personal capacities, because we are leaders of every organization," Miller said. "We're teachers, we're lawyers, we're doctors, we're parents — we're on the PTA."

The "sisterhood" is what it's all about, she continued, and rallying around Harris is "about uniting us again."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Harris' presence in the presidential race has galvanized the Divine Nine to expand its political engagement in new ways, too, with AKA earlier this month establishing a political action committee, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority PAC, Inc. (AKA 1908 PAC) — the first of its kind among the Black Greek-letter organizations.

The Council of Presidents for the Divine Nine also debuted plans to launch a massive voter turnout effort the day after Biden withdrew from the presidential race last month — a move that builds on Black sororities' "Stroll to the Polls" initiative encouraging community members to vote early.

Miller said the AKAs launching a PAC marks the "next evolution" of the organization because it offers the sorority a chance to learn "how much a PAC can make a movement and make a difference," by allowing it to make greater use of its network and the money within it to better help out communities.

"I wish we would have had this long before now because we can change any election by moving our pack," she said, adding that if "we take the collective and put it into our PAC. It's gonna change the course of whatever happens, and not just on the top of the ticket because" the "trickle down effect" allows it to impact state and local elections.

Fedderman characterized AKA's creation of a PAC as a "culminating experience" of the political activism included in the service that Black Greek-letter organizations conduct.

"When you can put capital behind a person, when you can put resources behind a person, the dividends really make a difference, you can't lose. You can't lose," he said, imagining multipronged efforts of members giving financially, knocking doors and phone banking to boost candidates.

Faye Tate, a Delta and DNC attendee who works in financial services, told Salon she hopes the momentum around Harris' presidential campaign will inspire Divine Nine members to deepen their longtime focus on leadership at different levels.

"This moment right here says it all," she said, pointing to the AKA member's presidential bid and the energy around it.

Through the DNC Black Caucus, Carrington also expressed a hope that, as a Divine Nine member and alongside nonpartisan groups like her sorority, she and the caucus can continue to "really lift up each individual segment of the population" and ensure they're "elevating not only Black women, but qualified Black people" who are running for office across the nation, noting how "definitive" Black Greek organizations have been in boosting efforts to elect Black judges across the nation.

"My mom always said, 'if you put in the work — and it's not going to be easy, it's going to be very hard — the reward will be great," Carrington said, predicting a Harris presidential victory. "This is going to be the greatest reward that we're all going to celebrate on November 5, because we have always been trying.

"We have to be twice as good, twice as fast to be able to elevate, and I just think this is a gift and a celebration for each of us," she continued, describing us as "being women in general but Black women specifically."