Black Sororities and Fraternities Line Up Behind Kamala Harris

By Maya King

As Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign rushes to shore up its base, its efforts will be bolstered by a ready-made coalition: the more than two million members of Black Greek-letter organizations who have quickly united to mobilize Black voters nationwide.

Before Ms. Harris had even hosted her first official campaign event as the de facto Democratic nominee, the heads of the “Divine Nine,” the country’s nine most prominent Black sororities and fraternities, were planning a giant voter organization effort. When President Biden announced on Sunday that he was stepping aside and endorsing Ms. Harris, excitement over her ascent spread swiftly among these groups’ members in group chats, Facebook groups and conference calls.

After all, Ms. Harris, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha since her undergraduate days at Howard University, is one of them.

“Greek letter organizations who have worked in the trenches, some for over 100 years, never received any kind of publicity, any kind of notoriety,” said Representative Frederica S. Wilson of Florida, who is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Once Ms. Harris ran for president, in 2020, she said, that changed. “The A.K.A.s shouted to the highest hills, ‘That’s our soror! That’s our sister!’”

On Wednesday, Ms. Harris addressed members of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority at their Boulé, or biennial national gathering, in Indianapolis — her first such event as the Democratic Party’s likely standard-bearer.

As Ms. Harris took the stage, members cheered as the sorority’s president, Stacie N.C. Grant, said their organization was the first Divine Nine sorority to host the nation’s first Black female presidential nominee. Though billed as an official White House event, Ms. Harris delivered an energetic version of her campaign stump speech, imploring the Black women present — a group long considered the backbone of the Democratic Party — to help her build on Mr. Biden’s record.

“In this moment our nation — as it always has — is counting on you,” she said. “To energize, to organize, to mobilize. To register folks to vote, to get them to the polls and to continue to fight for the future our nation and her people deserve.”

Ms. Harris’s sorors — the title members use to refer to one another — were firmly behind her during her first presidential campaign. When Mr. Biden selected her as his vice-presidential pick, they raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Democratic ticket, with individual members sending in donations of $19.08 in tribute to the organization’s founding year.

A united Black Greek front has the potential to offer even more significant political advantage, as their voter engagement programs reach millions every four years. More, each organization controls a hefty operating budget and their combined revenue would exceed $150 million, according to public records. Though the organizations do not endorse political candidates, some members say they see one of their own in Ms. Harris and have pledged to galvanize their members to turn out voters to potentially elect the first Black woman president.

Dante Nash, a 27-year-old member of Kappa Alpha Psi who attend Ms. Harris’s first rally as a presidential candidate on Tuesday in Wisconsin, said he felt that Black fraternities like his needed to back her candidacy.

“It’d be missed opportunity or a disservice if we didn’t,” said Mr. Nash, who works in design in Milwaukee. “I could see myself in her.”

Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha hoping to shore up support for Ms. Harris have posted memes and merchandise online with the organization’s signature pink and green color to get out the vote. One person cited Alpha Kappa Alpha’s nationwide ranks in a post on X, comparing its more than 300,000 members to a super PAC.

“Everybody Black Greek needs to power up,” she wrote.

As vice president, Ms. Harris has held meetings with Divine Nine leaders and championed historically Black colleges and universities. With her close personal ties to Black Greek life, her appearances have been nothing short of a homecoming. Earlier this month, she addressed Alpha Kappa Alpha’s 71st annual Boulé in Dallas, a national event with over 25,000 women in attendance.

Some woke up as early as 4 a.m. to secure tickets to her address. After working a long receiving line of hugs and warm handshakes, Ms. Harris told the crowd about her family’s ties to the organization through her aunt as well as senior Black White House staffers who are members. She also shouted out the women who pledged alongside her in 1986 at Howard, which is where the sorority, the oldest Greek-letter organization for Black women, was founded.

“You are such an incredible part of my journey and I love you guys,” she said, as members shouted “skee-wee,” the sorority’s signature call.

A number of prominent Black Democrats have pledged a Divine Nine sorority or fraternity, including Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity; the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries (Kappa Alpha Psi); and Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina (Omega Psi Phi).

For Alpha Kappa Alpha members, Ms. Harris’s candidacy represents both an opportunity to have a soror atop the presidential ticket and the shattering of a glass ceiling for Black women, who have long been among the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituencies.

Ms. Wilson, one of eight Alpha Kappa Alpha members in Congress, said she had discussed wearing her sorority’s colors, pink and green, every day until Election Day.

“I think that prior to this people sort of thought that, you know, sororities were the tea party ladies who haze and drink tea and dress up and wear high heel shoes, et cetera,” she said. “But they didn’t know about the service and the actual work.”

Willis Lonzer III, the general president of Alpha Phi Alpha and chairman of the council of presidents for all Divine Nine organizations, said the unified effort to engage Black voters was almost a year in the making, with conversations beginning last September.