By Trinity Webster-Bass, Howard University New Service
CHICAGO — Kamala Harris has had many roles and titles over the course of her political career. Attorney General, Senator, Vice President and now Democratic presidential nominee.
But for the women who were initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. at Howard University in the spring of 1986, they know Kamala Harris as “line sister.”
“Greetings most gracious ladies of the upper, uppermost house of Alpha Chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059,” they all chanted in unison.
Today, I sat down with a few fellow members of the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. More than 30 of Harris’ sorority sisters celebrated this historical moment. They traveled across the country to meet here in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. And Monique Poydras, an organizer of the event, shares why her sorority sisters are here to support Harris.
“So, we have gathered here today because we are so excited about our line sister, Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris,” Poydras said. “We’re here to celebrate her and also to support her in her nomination for president of the United States, and we’re looking at an individual who’s not only qualified, she’s qualified, overqualified for the role. And we couldn’t be more proud and humbled about our beginnings at Howard University.”
Valerie Pippen-Coutee has known Harris for over 40 years, and before they were sorority sisters, they were best friends.
“We got closer and closer together almost every day, and what we ended up doing was the summer of ‘85 we decided to go to summer school,” she recalled. “So, we worked during the day and went to summer school at night, and that really was difficult, but we were together every night.”
Pippen-Coutee continues to tell the story of how she convinced Harris to become a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first black sorority founded at Howard University.
“I remember I had pledged already, and I remember saying to her, ‘Hey, you should go out for the sorority. You should really do it.’ She was like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know what I want to do.’ I was like, ‘Look, you really need to do it.’ And she said, ‘I’m gonna do it.’ And so she did, and the rest is history.”
For many of Harris’ fellow members, getting people to the polls and Harris into the Oval Office are personal matters. From California to Washington, D.C., her sorority sisters have been there every step of the way.
Pippen-Coutee, like many of her sorority sisters, had plenty of stories to tell. They spoke of fond memories as they moved through life together.
“She might not remember this, but there was one time I visited her in Oakland, and we went shopping, and I was working, and I believe she had just become working in the District Attorney’s office. She kept saying, Pippen. She calls me Pippen. ‘Pippen, I need a blue suit. I need a blue suit.’ I bought her that blue suit.’”
And as a line sister Inez Brown explained that they have been with Harris throughout her wearing many different suites.
“We have celebrated her along the way,” Brown said. “When she was serving in Los Angeles, when she became the Attorney General, some of us were present at her swearing-in ceremony and celebration when she became a U.S. senator we also celebrated with her in that moment. We were in the room when she took her oath and when she was running for president.”
“We galvanized and we did what we could do to influence and encourage people to register to vote and to support financially, because we know money speaks, and that is an important part of every election.”
What her fellow sorority sisters love most about Harris is her character, and for Pippen-Coutee, her laugh.
“I just want people to know how much of a genuine person Kamala is, how loving and caring and funny, like we both love to laugh,” she said. “And that’s one thing we always had in common was laughter. And I just remember how she and I would just look at each other, just start cracking up.”
Brown, who also helped to organize the event, wants people to know that at the end of the day Harris is a person too.
“And I think a unique lens for us is her line sisters, as we get to paint the human side of Kamala,” Brown said. “People have only sort of known her in her public service, so they often wonder, ‘Is she really this? Is she really that?’”
“We are here to say she is authentic and she is genuine and she has never shifted that. No matter what role she has served in. We love her for that, and I think she absolutely loves us for being there for her as line sisters and not people who are just enamored with her space in life.”
Despite campaigning and running the country, Brown explains that in her time of need, Harris still found a moment to always have her back.
“I had brain surgery, and I talk about it because it is something real, and I realize it empowers me to support someone else who might be taking that journey,” she said. “I had just had surgery. Kamala called the hospital, and she was in the thick of her candidacy, but she made the time to reach out to me.”
Poydras knows that what bonds them is their shared experiences as Black women. It’s their sisterhood that connects them all.
“The founding of our illustrious sorority came at a time when we didn’t have anywhere,” Poydras explained. “We only had each other. So we had to create our own organization so that we could be a part of something special. This is not, ‘Oh, you just, you know, you’re part of an organization in college,’ and then it ends. This is a bond for life, a commitment for life, and that’s what our sisterhood stands for.”
And in case you’re wondering, Vice President Harris did indeed work at the McDonald’s on Georgia Avenue across from campus.
“Yes, it is true. She had to make money,” Brown said. “We all needed a job, ” Brown and Poydras exclaimed at the same time.
