ATLANTA — Their pink and green shirts read “Our Vice President is my Soror,” and in a small, socially distant home watch party, four Atlanta women watched their Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., sister take the oath of office and head to the White House on Wednesday.
“We are so proud of our soror, Kamala Harris, being installed as vice president,” beamed Marsha Archer, a member of Atlanta’s Pi Alpha Omega chapter. “We were proudly standing by watching every moment of the inauguration.”
Archer’s watch party was a small window into the excitement surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris’ newest role and the Black American experience she represents. Throughout Harris’ career, she’s been supported by the AKA sisterhood. She was initiated into the Howard University chapter in 1986, and the sorority has declared Jan. 20 “Kamala Harris Day.”
To understand the organization’s 113-year history, its members’ lifetime commitment, and the history of other “Divine Nine” organizations is to understand a significant part of Black American history.
“When it started at Howard University in 1908, it (social issues) was about lynching that was going on in this country and so much discrimination — that we’re still fighting for in the streets with Black Lives Matter, even in this time,” said Douglasville Mayor Rochelle Robinson.
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Robinson, who has been a member of AKA for more than three decades, was elected the city’s first Black and female mayor in 2015. In 2020, DeKalb County Sheriff and AKA Melody Maddox joined the same roster of AKA “firsts” in metro Atlanta. Retired WSB-TV anchor and television trailblazer Monica Kaufman Pearson is also a notable local and national figure, whose AKA membership spans nearly six decades.
Robinson and other members talked to their sorority sister, Channel 2′s Nicole Carr, about the role of AKAs in the political landscape, where members like Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King are notable figures.
“When I saw soror Vice President Kamala Harris, I thought about Rosa Parks sitting on the bus, me being able to drive the bus as mayor and my daughters, one day, being able to own the bus company,” Robinson said.
“When we talk about Black women voting, Black people voting, in general, and people of color, Alpha Kappa Alpha is always at the forefront to try to make sure that not only are we a diverse community in terms of our tolerance, but also that we support other communities who have been oppressed, as our ancestors have experienced in the past,” said Brianca Martin, who serves as basileus (president) of Atlanta’s Pi Alpha Omega chapter.
The Library of Congress houses a letter dated Feb. 17, 1913. It was penned by then-AKA President Nellie M. Quander and details the sorority’s interest in supporting the Women’s Suffrage Parade.
While the white woman’s vote would come well before Black Americans received the right to cast a ballot, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and other Black Greek Letter organizations played a role in the fight.
“Especially with Eleanor Roosevelt, she really helped with the sorority and the women’s suffrage movement,” added Robinson. “Civil rights kind of had to take a back seat because they were saying we can’t push forward women and African Americans in this country at the same time, and we decided to partner and link up and to help even though our needs were pushed back.”
In Atlanta, where the sorority is known for its annual day at the state Capitol, one of AKA’s founding members would also make history. Marjorie Antoinette Woolfolk Taylor would serve as community assistant to the First Congregational Church’s first Black pastor, Henry Hugh Proctor. A marker at the Courtland Street church was dedicated to her in 2018 by members of the Kappa Omega chapter. Taylor founded the Atlanta chapter in 1923 and would be the force behind what we know as the United Way of Atlanta.
Harris’ ascent as the first Black, South Asian and woman vice president is also a testament to education received at historically Black colleges and universities, a point highlighted by her line sister and Clark Atlanta University executive on Good Morning America on Wednesday.
“Historically Black colleges and universities are finally getting the recognition they so richly deserve,” said Lorri Saddler-Rice, CAU’s associate vice president and dean of undergraduate admissions.
Back at Archer’s home — a moment of reflection alongside her sorors, Reina Short, Kerry Hogan and Tiffany Monroe.
“As our daughters are watching this momentous, historic occasion, it’s important for them to see themselves, and I think that’s what we see in Vice President Kamala Harris,” said Short, a Tau Epsilon chapter member. “We see a bit of ourselves, as we did with the Obamas. To have that again, it does inspire us to keep wanting to press forward to keep being educated, to keep helping each other.”
Cox Media Group
