Since stepping onto the political scene, Vice President of the United States and the likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has always proudly represented the pretty salmon pink and apple green colors of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
And the sorority has shared its pride in Harris right back. After President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the upcoming presidential election and Harris officially entered into the race, Harris’ sorors — the title Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated members use to refer to one another — came together to support her bid for the presidency. And they weren’t alone; members of other groups in the Divine Nine — the governing body of historically Black fraternities and sororities to which AKA belongs, formally known as the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) — also got behind Harris, organizing to raise millions of dollars for her and spread awareness on voter registration, all in the first week of her campaign. (As a non-profit, the National Pan-Hellenic Council is non-partisan and cannot officially endorse Harris, but the group promised to launch a voter mobilization campaign that “will activate the thousands of chapters and members in our respective organizations to ensure strong voter turnout in the communities we serve.”)
For members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Harris’ candidacy represents a chance to have a soror in the highest political office in the country, and another opportunity to witness a historic change in the United States of America — something the sorority is known for being a catalyst of.
Here’s a look at the history of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, some of its historic accomplishments, and how Harris’ affiliation with the organization might help her win the election.
AKA was founded to uplift Black collegiate women.
Founded in 1908 on the campus of Howard University, (Harris’ alma mater) Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, is the oldest Greek-letter organization created by African American college-educated women. As mentioned, AKA is part of the NPHC, which is a collection of historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities that was founded as a support system for Black students experiencing racism and segregation in college.
On January 15, 1908, Ethel Hedgemon — along with Anna Easter Brown, Beulah Burke, Lillie Burke, Marjorie Hill, Margaret Flagg Holmes, Lavinia Norman, Lucy Diggs Slowe, and Marie Woolfolk — founded the sorority at Howard University. At that time, the founders were among the fewer than 1,000 Black women enrolled in higher education institutions in 1908, and the 25 women who received bachelor of arts degrees from Howard University between 1908 and 1911. To ensure the continuity of the organization, Nellie Quander, along with Norma Boyd and Minnie Smith, led the effort to incorporate the organization in 1913.
Since its inception, Alpha Kappa Alpha has always strived to follow through on its mission: “To cultivate and encourage high scholastic and ethical standards; promote unity and friendship among college women; study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women in order to improve their social stature; maintain a progressive interest in college life, but most of all: to be of service to all mankind.”
AKA has a long history of making an impact on the country.
Alpha Kappa Alpha has been at the forefront of history from its very beginning. In 1913, the same year the organization was incorporated, Quander wrote to women’s rights activist Alice Paul, advocating for her to include Black students from Howard in a women’s suffrage march without discrimination.
Two decades later, according to the AKA website, one of the sorority’s “most widely known expression of social responsibility,” was the Mississippi Health Project, which began during the Great Depression in 1934. The project aimed to provide proper health care to the African American community in the Mississippi Delta that did not have access to proper health care. The MHP was what immortalized AKA as a national organizational force; AKA created a report of its observations and sent it to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who became a supporter of many AKA initiatives and later an honorary member, according to the documentary Twenty Pearls: The Story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Alpha Kappa Alpha has continued its advocacy and involvement throughout the decades, with involvement in everything from human rights, to medical research, to youth advocacy.
The sorority’s power is due in large part to its network of members, of which there are more than 360,000 members in its 1,074 chapters across the globe. The sorority is filled with high-ranking women in all fields, from science and law to politics and literature.
NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space, was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson — three Black mathematicians who were pivotal in NASA’s mission to send a man into space and also central characters of the film Hidden Figures — were also members of the sorority.
The late Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a powerhouse and advocate for Black American issues in Congress was an AKA; as was Constance Motley, who was the first female attorney for the Legal Defense Fund and wrote the original complaint in Brown v. Board of Education.
Alpha Kappa Alpha has also inducted many honorary members, too. Some honorary members include civil rights icon Rosa Parks, record-holding track and field Olympian Allyson Felix, and most recently, Emmy-winning TV host and journalist Tamron Hall.
Suffice it to say, AKA is packed with powerful women who have the drive and the power to help Harris achieve her goals.
AKAs — and other NPHC members — are rallying behind Harris.
Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha and the other sororities and fraternities in the Divine Nine firmly supported Harris during her first presidential campaign for the 2020 election. Hundreds of Divine Nine sorority members came together, going viral with their Stroll to the Polls videos in Atlanta, Georgia.
According to political news outlet Roll Call, after Harris dropped out and Biden chose her as his running mate in the 2020 election, hundreds of thousands of fundraising dollars were rushed to the Democratic ticket, with many individuals sending donations of $19.08, a nod to AKA’s founding year.
Now, four years later, the same is happening again. CNN’s Fredreka Schouten reported that Harris’ campaign saw more than 1,500 contributions of exactly $19.08 between July 21, 2024 — when Biden stepped down and Harris began her campaign — and the very next day.
Many of Harris’ sorority sisters were among the more than 40,000 Black women who joined a call for the group Win With Black Women on July 21, the same day Harris announced her candidacy. According to the New York Times, the Zoom meeting had a record number of attendees and raised over $1.5 million for Kamala’s campaign in one sitting.
Earlier in July, before announcing she would be running for president, Harris addressed Alpha Kappa Alpha’s 71st Boulé in Dallas, a national event with over 25,000 women in attendance. Surrounded by her sorors decked in pink and green, Harris spoke about her family’s connection to the organization and gave a special thanks to the women who pledged alongside her in 1986 at Howard.
“You are such an incredible part of my journey and I love you guys,” she said, according to the New York Times, as members shouted “skee-wee,” the sorority’s signature call.
Now, with Harris officially running, it looks like members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated are ready to show that love right back to her.