VP pick Kamala Harris is a point of pride for NC’s HBCU alums and Divine 9 members
On an August Sunday morning in 2019, Sen. Kamala Harris paid a visit to St. Joseph AME church in Durham. Prelude music and a packed sanctuary awaited her. As the doors opened and Harris entered, hundreds of people stood — most prominently women in pink and green.
Those are the colors of Harris’ sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and the women are her sorority sisters, known as sorors. St. Joseph is walking distance from the campus of N.C. Central University, a historically Black university. At the time, Harris, a U.S. senator from California, was running in the crowded presidential primary field.
Now she’s Democrat Joe Biden’s running mate for the White House.
Among the many historic firsts that Harris brings as the Democratic vice presidential candidate is being a graduate of Howard University, which is an HBCU, and a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Kamala Harris ‘a prime example’
U.S. Rep. Alma Adams of Charlotte is one of Harris’ AKA sorors and a graduate of an HBCU, too — N.C. A&T State University. AKA is about service, and Harris is someone who models those principles, Adams said in a phone interview with The News & Observer on Wednesday.
Adams also founded the Congressional Bipartisan Historically Black Colleges and Universities Caucus.
“I will tell you overall, when you look at the more than 100 HBCUs across this country, we work with our young people to produce the Kamala Harrises of the world. I’m a prime example. First generation: I walked the ghetto streets of north New Jersey and now walk the halls of Congress,” she said. “That’s what HBCUs do for you ... We have a great history, we’ve just got to tell our story more. Kamala Harris is certainly a prime example of what happens at an HBCU. They will take the time to mold and shape you and prepare you for leadership.”
Adams has a grandson in his second year at Howard University, Harris’ alma mater. Adams said she told her grandson that if he went to an HBCU, “Nana’s dollars will follow you there.”
Like HBCUs, Harris has also created opportunity, Adams said. She said that “little black and brown girls will look up today and say, ‘That can be me.’”
North Carolina voters will see another Howard graduate on their November ballots: State Rep. Yvonne Lewis Holley, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.
“For her to be second on the national level and for me to be second on the state level would be awesome,” Lewis Holley told The News & Observer. “I know the kind of education we got. I was ahead of her. I know she’s prepared and capable of doing the job,” she said.
Lewis Holley is a Delta Sigma Theta, also part of what is known as the Divine 9, the group of historically Black fraternities and sororities of the National Pan-Hellenic Council.
Lewis Holley said that HBCUs “do not give up on anybody, any of their students.”
“It takes them from where they are and catapults them to the future. It’s a different kind of education because of the support system, that the structure is there for the support that we get. That’s why I’m thrilled and delighted, and that’s why I love my HBCUs.”
What HBCUs, Divine 9 mean to NC leaders
During Harris’ campaign visit to North Carolina last August, she also spoke to a crowd of several hundred, including Gov. Roy Cooper and U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, at the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People banquet in downtown Durham.
Former Durham Mayor Bill Bell, who was honored at the event, noted that he and Harris are both alumni of Howard University. Butterfield, a Wilson Democrat and graduate of N.C. Central University, also an HBCU, said Harris is “showing the world that African American women can excel and lead this nation.”
In her speech, Harris talked about the term “identity politics” being a 21st century version of “the race card.” Harris said that identity politics is brought up when you talk about civil rights issues, and can mean “hush” or “shut up.” She said talking about where the country is on civil rights issues is not about identity politics, but about America’s identity.
The prayer at the banquet was delivered by Rev. Mark-Anthony Middleton, who is a Durham City Council member and a member of a Divine 9 fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha. Alphas and AKAs are unofficially linked as “phirst pham,” meaning they were each the first Black sorority and fraternity. Middleton is an Alpha and graduate of N.C. A&T.
“This is just a phenomenal, affirming event. First and foremost of course for Black women, who have been just the mainstay and the lifeblood of the Democratic Party,” Middleton told The News & Observer in a phone interview Wednesday. “As a graduate of an HBCU, I am extremely proud. What I really see this as is really just an affirmation for folk — what many of us have already known about the level of excellence these HBCUs operate at — so this is not a surprise for those of us who have attended them,” he said. “Not a boost so much as a confirmation.”
“This is an affirmation for the whole movement, not just Howard but all HBCUs,” Middleton said.
“HBCUs are a product of exclusion. They were birthed out of not allowing us to go to [white] institutions. We’ve had our own Ivy League for generations,” he said.
Black fraternities and sororities provide an opportunity “to bond together, to draw strength with one another, Middleton said. “You don’t have to let us in your club. We’ll start our own.”
Pat Timmons-Goodson, the Democratic nominee for North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District and the first Black woman on the NC Supreme Court, is also an AKA like Harris. Timmons-Goodson went to UNC. She said that many women continue their sorority involvement even after they graduate from college because of graduate chapters.
“That keeps the flame of the sisterhood going and that’s why it’s a big deal. It wasn’t just a college experience. We continue to serve our communities after we leave college. Folks might think about sororities only in the context of college. I want folks to understand it’s an experience that goes beyond college life,” Timmons-Goodson said.
NCCU political science professor Jarvis Hall, a graduate of N.C. A&T, said Harris being in AKA will create more of a connection between her and the Black community, especially the younger Black community.
“For those of us who are products of an HBCU, it’s a point of pride. It’s a recognition of what HBCUs have been doing for years in terms of producing very qualified people who can occupy important positions, including at the top of government,” Hall said.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 12:42 PM with the headline "VP pick Kamala Harris is a point of pride for NC’s HBCU alums and Divine 9 members."
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