By Alaina Bookman
One week ago, Salaam Green jumped on a Zoom call.
And about 40,000 other Black women joined her, buzzing with excitement about the news that Vice President Kamala Harris was now in the running for the White House and had the endorsement of President Joe Biden.
They raised more than $1 million for Harris’ campaign, excited at the prospect of electing the Black woman, the first Indian American person and the first HBCU graduate to the presidency.
“It really changes my enthusiasm. But also it changes some of the work that I’m excited to do. I’m working alongside other Black women in different organizations,” said Green, who is poet-laureate of Birmingham. She said she has now donated to Harris’ campaign and plans to help mobilize others to vote.
Alabama, a deep-red state, isn’t expected to be in play for the presidential election. But Black women and HBCU graduates say they’re still determined to support Harris and potentially make a difference in down-ballot races, such as the competitive 2nd Congressional District.
Alabama Democrats say Harris, a Howard University graduate and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority member, can build a winning national coalition of women, Black and young voters, if support carries her to the party’s nomination for president.
They have quickly moved to endorse Harris ahead of the Democratic National Convention. State Sen. Merika Coleman, (D-Pleasant Grove), and Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson, were also on that Zoom call.
It was “church,” Coleman told The Birmingham Times. “It was a celebration of sisterhood, but it was also a call to action.”
Akiesha Anderson, a 15-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and a former lobbyist in Alabama, said she’s much more excited about Harris’ candidacy than she was for Biden’s.
“I think that there was, at least, for me personally, not a lot of excitement about the upcoming election. I was planning on voting. I would have voted for Biden because it would be the responsible thing to do… but it wasn’t something that I was really excited about,” Anderson said.
Fellow sorors have been among the vice president’s most faithful supporters. And Alabama, home to 14 HBCUs and many Divine Nine members, is home to a large number of potentially untapped voters.
Harris has said that joining AKA at Howard changed her life.
“We know when we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize, nations change. And when we vote, we make history,” Harris told an audience of 20,000 members at AKA’s biennial boule earlier this month in Dallas.
“It’s a phenomenal experience to see another brown sister who’s part of a sisterhood [run for president],” said Green, who in 1992 helped charter a new Zeta Phi Beta sorority chapter at the University of Montevallo.
“We are not in the same sorority, but to see someone who’s part of the D9 speaks to the scholarship, service and the brilliance of how the women from those organizations can represent all sectors of America, including possibly being the president,” Green said.
In the last week, a surge of campaign contributions have headed toward both Harris and former President Donald Trump.
And new interest in the presidential race could impact down-ballot elections, too.
Democrats hope to flip the newly-redrawn 2nd Congressional District seat and elect the second Democratic member in Alabama’s seven-member U.S. House delegation. Democratic candidate Shomari Figures has endorsed Harris. His opponent, Republican Caroleene Dobson, has said that Biden should resign.
“It’s invigorating,” Anderson said. “I think that with Kamala running for president and hopefully winning, there is this symbolic new era of politics and what is possible, and even just this representation component of it is really powerful and meaningful to me personally.”
It’s too soon to know for sure whether Harris’ campaign might shift votes in Alabama or across the country, but experts are watching to see if she can bring back Black voters, who were pivotal to Biden’s 2020 election but have recently expressed dissatisfaction with the incumbent.
Another open question: Can Harris generate the same excitement among young and undecided voters as former President Barack Obama did in 2008?
Trump appeared to be coasting to victory before Biden dropped out. Now, he has launched attacks on his new rival, blaming Harris for problems of the current administration, including the border crisis and inflation. On Thursday, Trump described Harris as “a lunatic” and a “California socialist.”
Imani Muse, Miss Birmingham and a student at the University of Alabama, will vote in her first presidential election in November. She plans to work with the Blackburn Institute to register other students to vote.
“I really just want our young people to realize that we’ve given a lot of political power to those who are older,” Muse said. “Our time is now.”
Shalela Dowdy is a six-year member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and a student at Southern University Law Center. She also serves in leadership for the Mobile Branch of the NAACP and is the founding president of Stand Up Mobile, a voter education and advocacy nonprofit, and is a supporter of Harris.
She will work to get young people to the polls in November, and said endorsements of Harris from Alabama leaders, including Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, will resonate with voters. Both men are graduates of Morehouse College and members of Divine Nine fraternities.
“Kamala Harris having the potential to be the first Black woman, first HBCU graduate and first D9 member to serve in the presidential seat reiterates the vast amount of leaders that these organizations and institutions are developing throughout time. The success rate speaks volumes on the ability to produce our nation’s top leaders,” Dowdy said.
Dowdy said she is happy to see more representation of Black women and HBCU graduates in politics.
“It makes me proud,” Dowdy said.
