Supporting A Sister: Promoting Kamala Harris - Roslyn M. Brock
On January 20th, 2021 Kamala Harris made history towards a better future as she was sworn in as the first Black female Vice President of the United States. Joe Biden’s announcement of the Howard University graduate and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority member as his running mate inspired many. Alpha Kappa Alpha members immediately started their work to promote their fellow sister and made various donations using the numbers of the year 1908.
Roslyn Brock, the International Connection/Social Action Chairman of the sorority spoke on the organization’s recent efforts in an NBC news article.
“‘Those who knew, knew,’ said Roslyn Brock, chair of the International Connection Committee for Alpha Kappa Alpha, the sorority to which Harris belongs. The donations represented the year 1908, when the sorority — one of the Divine Nine of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities — was founded at Howard University, Harris’ alma mater.
“‘All of those were a signal of Black women from Alpha Kappa Alpha making our voices heard through our financial contributions,’ said Brock, who was responsible for the sorority’s get-out-the-vote efforts. While the sorority is a service organization and has members from both political parties, the support for Harris was overwhelming. ‘It was very organic about the pride we have in our sisterhood,’ Brock said.
“Alpha Kappa Alpha is one of many Black women’s groups that leveraged its power by mobilizing its members, coordinating its leadership and working in collaboration with others this election cycle. The result was an undeniable show of power from Black women voters and activists, and widespread recognition that their work was a cornerstone of the Democrats’ win.
“‘It was an awakening. A phoenix rising,’ Brock said of the power of the whole. ‘Many of us have worked in our own individual capacities, mobilizing [during] electoral cycles. But we banded together in this historic moment because we understood the implications and the import of this seminal election in our nation’s history.’”
