Harris campaign bolstered by Black sororities and civil rights groups
Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is receiving widespread support from Black Greek letter organizations and civil rights groups.
The historic organizations and the “Divine Nine” are masterminding plans to increase the Black vote in November and ensure little to no irregularities at the polls for this presidential election cycle.
“The momentum of this moment will help to expand our mobilization,” Shavon Arline-Bradley, the national head of the National Council of Negro Women, told theGrio.
Arline-Bradley, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., attended the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.’s boule on Wednesday in Indianapolis, Indiana, where Harris was the keynote speaker.
The Divine Nine is also coordinating a non-partisan voter registration event. In a written statement on Monday, the collective of Black Greek letter organizations said, “This campaign will activate the thousands of chapters and members in our respective organizations to ensure strong voter turnout in the communities we serve.”
The vice president is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., which she pledged on the campus of Howard University, one of the nation’s premier HBCUs. Two weeks before President Joe Biden suspended his reelection campaign and named Harris as his preferred successor, Harris attended the international convention of her own sorority, sharing the Biden-Harris administration’s successes with the 20,000 in attendance.
Unlike the AKA convention, the Zeta boule marked the “first Black Greek letter organization to host the first Black woman presidential nominee,” noted Dr. Stacie Grant, international president and CEO of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., in a statement.
Grant told theGrio that 6,000 members attended the already-planned event on Wednesday, and 2,000 joined online. The organization boasts over 100,000 members in total.
“We share a vision for the future of our nation … a future of social justice, health justice, economic justice … ours is a vision of a future in which we realize the promise of America,” Harris told the women of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., on Wednesday. “I deeply believe in the promise of America. A promise of freedom, opportunity, and justice. Not for some but for all. “
“This moment is not only meaningful for Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., but for all Divine 9 organizations,” said Grant. “This moment puts a focal point on our collective influence of our communities … who have united together to distill information this election season and get the nation to ‘stroll to the polls’ with us.”
The power and influence of the Divine Nine have been reflected in other races, such as the Maryland U.S. Senate contest.
Angela Alsobrooks clinched the Democratic nomination in May against U.S. Rep. David Trone, who poured $60 million of his own money into his campaign to beat her. Alsobrooks agreed when asked by theGrio if her win was the result of her “red army” of sisters a part of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
“They showed up,” said Alsobrooks, a friend of Harris dating back to their days as state and district attorneys, as she beamed with pride at the White House’s Juneteenth concert in June.
For this presidential election, there is a full-on effort to defeat Donald Trump and elect Kamala Harris as president of the United States.
In addition to the Divine Nine, Arline-Bradley noted that civil rights groups like the National Council of Negro Women are mobilizing members to register new voters ahead of Nov. 5.
“NCNW collectively just gathered over 5,100 members and affiliates to launch the eight-state strategy in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio,” Arline-Bradley told theGrio.
She said local affiliate chapters are “instructed to focus on registering high school seniors to vote in their service area.”
Arline-Bradley noted that NCNW is also partnering with the NAACP to target voting access for the disenfranchised as a growing initiative, following rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court over the years that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The civil rights groups are focusing their canvassing efforts on “low-propensity voter zip codes.”
“We will also collaborate with Faiths United to Save Democracy to train poll chaplains to support precincts,” said Arline-Bradley, which is expected to aid with voter irregularity challenges in target states.