Twin Cities sorority members, Howard alumni host parties for Harris as results tick in

Black sorority members gathered to watch election results Tuesday night at a Golden Valley house party while at the same time alumni from historically Black colleges met in St. Paul to see whether Vice President Kamala Harris would shatter several glass ceilings to become the nation's first female Black president.

Harris has been a member of the nation's first Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., since she attended Howard University, where the sorority was founded. Her candidacy has galvanized Black sorority members nationwide, who have thrown parties and events across the country to get out the vote. Harris' presidential run has also empowered those who have attended historically black colleges and universities or HBCUs.

"I just think it's so significant. … We are on the verge of electing the first woman president, the first Black woman president," said Kareem Murphy, 52, of Minneapolis, at a watch party at Pimento Jamaican Kitchen in downtown St. Paul on Tuesday. "But she's a black college grad. She's a HBCU grad. She's a Howard University grad. It means the world for us to come into community to celebrate this moment."

Murphy, a 1994 Howard University graduate, is a member of a Twin Cities Howard University alumni group, which helped organize the watch party at Pimento, where attendees danced and ate as they waited for voting results to be tallied.

As polls began to close throughout the United States, about two dozen Delta Sigma Theta sorority sisters held a "sister circle" at an apartment party room in Golden Valley as they supported each other while anxiously watching election results trickle in between spontaneous line dances and a buffet of chips, brownies and snacks.

Stephanie Burrage, 56, president of the sorority's Minneapolis-St. Paul chapter, said the sorority has done a lot to get out the vote. As a nonprofit, the organization isn't allowed to endorse candidates but instead, it focuses on voter education.

Burrage worked for Harris's running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, as the state's chief equity officer before leaving last summer. She has met Harris.

"I have been with her previously, and what I have witnessed of her ability to share her plan to discuss what she will do for the American people, I have been impressed with," she said.

Krystin Foster, 36, is a Michigan native who currently lives in Minneapolis. She was anxious and excited at the prospect of Harris winning and glad her sorority sisters were surrounding her as election results came in Tuesday.

"There's a lot at stake," Foster said.

When she first learned this summer that Harris would be the nominee instead of President Joe Biden, she said she thought, "Oh, wow. This could happen. Like, we could have Kamala as our next president. … It gave me a lot of hope."

Kirstin Johnson-Nixon, 58, a school social worker in Minneapolis, was trying to project calmness Tuesday night.

"I feel kinda calm but I am worried," she said. "We have done so much work that I have to stay positive about it."

At first, when Johnson-Nixon heard Harris would be running for president, she wasn't sure Harris was ready. But she said Harris has since proven she has "it" — as in, the "it factor."

Gloria Stamps-Smith met Harris years ago at a national Black prosecutors gathering when Harris was running for California attorney general. She said it was clear Harris was destined for greater things.

"Our country is more willing to accept people, no matter who they are," Stamps-Smith said. "America no longer means white men or white men with money. It means all of us."

As the night wore on and early returns seemed bleak for Harris, the sorority sisters stayed calm.

Golden Valley Mayor Roslyn Harmon — an ordained minister who works in restorative justice for the city of St. Paul — woke up Thursday morning with three words on her mind: "All is well."

And when she entered the "sister circle," Burrage said to her, "All is well."

"I feel at peace," Harmon said. "I'm not fearful. I think it's gonna pan out."