Kamala Harris running for president may ‘crystallize’ voting power of Divine 9, HBCUs

If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election, she will usher in several firsts: first woman, first Black woman and first Indian-American in the White House.

She’ll also be the first president who graduated from an HBCU or is a member of a Divine 9 sorority or fraternity.

Harris is a graduate of Howard University in Washington and an Alpha Kappa Alpha — two factors that Democrats think could help get-out-the-vote efforts and fundraising. That status matters to those who attended a historically Black college or university, or who are in the Divine 9, which is a group of prominent Black Greek-letter organizations.

Devin Freeman is a senior at N.C. Central University, an HBCU in Durham, and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, one of the Divine 9.

“It’s so exciting to support the vice president because she is the fighter for a better future not only for me, but my generation,” Freeman said at a news conference days after President Joe Biden stepped aside in the race and threw his support behind Harris as the nominee. Freeman said “it’s so meaningful to me to have an HBCU grad as our future president.”

Freeman met Harris when he was invited to her home along with other HBCU student leaders in 2022, and talked to her again when she was campaigning in Greensboro, then as the VP.

He described her character then, just before Biden “passed the baton” and now, as “ready for anything.”

“It was great to see what the new face of this next generation looks like. And in particularly, what politics, what good democracy and good politics, will look like in the future,” Freeman said in an August interview.

Freeman is one of those new faces, too, and as a delegate will cast his vote for Harris during the Democratic National Convention.

He won’t be the only Divine 9 member doing so.

Millions of Divine 9 members

The power of the nine Black sororities and fraternities is millions of people, said state Sen. Natalie Murdock, a Delta Sigma Theta. Their voting power is strong, and some members are politically active, including by participating in the annual Divine 9 Day at the N.C. General Assembly. The bonds aren’t just something that members have while in college; Divine 9 members form lifelong memberships and communities.

Four million people are in the Divine 9, according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. The nine are Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Delta Sigma Theta, Omega Psi Phi, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho and Iota Phi Theta.

“It’s more than just your undergraduate years or your time in grad school. It really is a lifetime of sisterhood,” said Murdock, a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate who served as a social action chair for the Durham Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Inc. She said Delta Sigma Theta hosted voter registration drives on campus, as well as nonpartisan election forums where folks can come together and hear about the candidates.

“It really is historic. And we feel that energy when it comes to the HBCUs and our Divine 9 organizations. Folks are stepping up to the plate, and they’re being leaders. Folks are activated, the energy and the enthusiasm and the momentum are all there, and folks are laser-focused over the next 80 or so days and getting VP Harris across the finish line,” Murdock said. That will include “Stroll to the Polls,” she said — a reference to the coordinated dances at Divine 9 social gatherings — when Divine 9 members will go to their polling places together.

Democratic State Auditor Jessica Holmes is an AKA, like Harris. She’s a DNC delegate, too.

“To see the vice president, who is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., earn the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, is absolutely surreal, and I am personally inspired. I never imagined that I would cast a delegate vote to make a woman of color the Democratic nominee for president,” Holmes said in an interview.

Holmes has met Harris several times. “She’s kind, she’s warm, she’s intelligent and just a wonderful representation of strong women across our country,” Holmes said about Harris.

“The Divine 9 is energized in a way that I have never seen before. And in terms of people across North Carolina, I haven’t seen this level of enthusiasm since President Obama’s 2008 campaign, and recent increases in Democratic voter registration, volunteerism and excitement, evidence just how ready we all are to break glass ceilings in November.”

Holmes, a UNC-Chapel Hill grad and former Wake County Commissioners chair who was appointed in December to finish the term of former Auditor Beth Wood, is the first Black woman on the Council of State. She is running this fall to keep her seat.

HBCUs, college student voters

Holmes said she believes that “young people, college graduates and HBCU graduates, will turn out in similar ways that they turned out in 2008. There is an excitement and a fire to to be a part of this history.”

Harris campaign visits leading up to the election will include stops on HBCU campuses, her campaign told The N&O. In North Carolina, she has previously held events at N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro, which is the nation’s largest HBCU, at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, and at Shaw University, a private school in downtown Raleigh where the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed during the Civil Rights Movement.

Harris has visited Durham but has not so far held an event at N.C. Central University.

NCCU political science professor Jarvis Hall, a graduate of A&T, said that Harris leading the ticket has “generated all types of excitement” on campus and in the community. He said that get-out-the-vote efforts on campus extend to the places where students are from, too.

Hall said when the presidential race was still Biden vs. Trump, young people especially “were not satisfied with the people who were at the top of the ticket — for both political parties.”

“I think this has changed it considerably, especially for the Democratic side. I think now that (the Democratic nominee) is not an old white man anymore, it has really energized, especially young people, the Black community, and other segments of the community that were threatened to to be on the sideline in terms of this election,” Hall said.

Hall expects Democrats to get a bump because of the convention, but that they’ll need to “turn that excitement into mobilization.”

‘Crystallizing’ the campaign

Harris senior adviser Trey Baker, an HBCU alum and member of Kappa Alpha Psi, said that Harris being a Howard alum “really just sort of crystallizes something that we’ve known our entire lives, is that HBCUs are, in fact, where leaders throughout this country are built, and they can hold any office across the board.”

“They can run any organization across the board. And so what this is, is it’s a crystallization of that concept for us. HBCU grads have been a part of every great movement in this country’s history, and that continues to be the case,” he told The News & Observer in an interview. He said the Divine 9’s millions of members already do community service as part of their missions, from mobilizing voters to mobilizing after disasters.

“To have the power of that kind of organizational strength, and that kind of mobilization strength, it’s just really something that the vice president thinks will be effective as we go forward, to try to mobilize communities all over the country and particularly in battleground states like North Carolina,” Baker said.