There’s no denying that it was history making one month ago when kamala harris was sworn in and it’s also safe to say that a lot of people were pretty excited about her becoming vice president of the united states however there is one group in particular who was more excited
Than everyone else jose sloane has more kamala harris is a lot of firsts she’s the first black woman to be vice president the first south asian woman and the first veep to come from a black sorority which is itself the first black sorority now when most people hear the word
Sorority they’re usually picturing something very specific so i sat down with three women from black sororities to explain why it’s such a big deal to have a vice president from the divine nine so first of all for those that are not in the know i know but some people don’t know
What is the divine nine the divine nine or nine black greek letter organizations five fraternities four sororities picture like the houses in harry potter except this time with black people in them these organizations are founded at the undergraduate level as a whole we really focus on giving back to our communities
In addition you don’t stop serving in undergrad and honey you will still be a member if you die lifetime commitment so you say life you mean i’m out here building hud houses to the day i die is that what we’re doing that’s right really even court-ordered community service ends at some point
But the idea of serving the community has been at the core of the divine nine ever since the early 1900s when black students barred from white fraternities and sororities decided y’all we’ll do our own thing alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated was founded in 1908 on the campus of howard university
And that is the very same chapter that our vice president was initiated into so educated black women gathering in the early 1900s and nobody got arrested well no one got arrested but there was resistance from the administration of howard uh university i’m sorry you’re telling me that a
Historically black college did not want black women students to organize as a group well there’s something called you know sexism can never forget about the misogyny but misogyny be damned the sororities continued to grow and so did their demands the very first act of the deltas
Coming together in 1913 was the march in the famous women’s suffrage parade in washington dc we knew that some of the organizers of that march wanted black women to be segregated and march in the back but black women refused to do that that’s the weird kind of paradox that black women live in
Where it’s i’m going to a black college but they don’t want us to organize and then as a woman i’m trying to get the right to vote but because i’m dealing with white women now i have to deal with us being segregated so we kind of just sit here and just go
All right who’s gonna hate us today
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