The signature “skee-wee” rallying call erupted at the start of a Q&A featuring then-U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Hearing her surrogate sisterhood sound their encouragement and their approval of what she embodies, Harris clapped, returning the women’s applause. She wiggled gleefully in her chair and beamed a smile toward those huddled members of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, skee-wee’ing in Harris’ direction.
“Those are my sorors,” Harris, laughing, announced to the journalist who was moderating that night’s discussion in South Carolina. She was delighted to have AKAs in the room.
The new vice president’s shout-out to her kindred in what is the nation’s first Black sorority was more than mere gesturing, say scholars, including several who are AKAs themselves. Harris’ presidential bid, its failure notwithstanding, and subsequent election as U.S. vice president place her in a pantheon of Black Greek society members who have taken on leadership positions of the highest order. The rise of Harris and other members of Black Greek organizations is driving, some observers say, heightened attention not only to the history and role of Black Greeks, but also to the role of historically Black colleges and universities [HBCUs] in creating generations of Black doers and strivers.
Harris — who is Black and South Asian — has touted her HBCU and Black Greek connections and is thus fueling heightened interest in HBCUs, says Dr. Lorri L. Saddler.
“Many high school students are seeing these institutions differently and as viable options for their academic advancement,” says Saddler, associate vice president and dean of admissions at Clark Atlanta University. “HBCU grads have been present in every industry at every level. We’ve known that. Now, the world knows that. The accomplishments of Madam Vice President Harris only elucidate what HBCUs can deliver.”
It’s a necessary counterpoint to what Dr. Nikita Harris, a University of Alabama associate professor (who is not related to the vice president), says are doubts about the educational capacity of HBCUs, a complaint she has heard mainly from Black students.
“They’re under this notion that [predominantly White institutions] prepare you and HBCUs won’t,” says Harris, an AKA sister who teaches in Alabama’s College of Communication & Information Sciences. “Often, they don’t know I’m a product of two HBCUs …. And when I look around at PWIs, [many of] the Black people who are on the faculty there also graduated from HBCUs.”
