(RNS) – Shortly after Vice President Kamala Harris went from vice presidential candidate to presidential candidate, 44,000 of her supporters participated in a call called Win With Black Women that quickly became a sort of sorority gathering.

“People were shouting at their Greek-letter organizations,” recalls Tamura Lomax, an associate professor of religious studies at Michigan State University and a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

The call, generally, also opened and ended with prayer.

Like no previous campaign, the 2024 election season has highlighted the unifying power of the century-old relationship between the two pillars of the Black community: Black churches and the “Divine Nine” fraternities and sororities that Black Americans have turned to for solidarity on campus and beyond for generations.

Although only a nickname, the organizations nicknamed the Divine Nine have multiple overlaps with the Dark Church. Still, said Candice Marie Benbow, a Black theologian and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, to which Harris also belongs, “this is the first time we’ve actually had a candidate for a major political party who is the product of both.” »

Benbow added: “There’s a certain level of ownership and understanding, like we know her.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. annual convention during the 71st Boule Biennial at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

Benbow, who has canvassed in Atlanta with other Christian women and sorority sisters, said the bonds between sororities have created a unity of purpose among those urging people to vote. “There is a rhythm that is instinctive, because we live at the intersection of Black people of faith and Black people who are part of Greek-letter organizations that are committed to the uplift of the community,” she declared.

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Clergy across the country capitalize on this connection, whether or not they participate in Greek life. Bishop Edgar Vann II, senior pastor of the nondenominational Ebenezer Second Church in Detroit, does not belong to any fraternity, but he has enlisted Greek brothers and sisters to step up his efforts to ensure his congregants are ready to vote.

Mgr Edgar Vann II. (Courtesy photo)

“Each of the fraternities or sororities had a Sunday, and during those nine Sundays, they registered people to vote, and a lot of them were young people,” he said. Divine Nine members registered dozens of voters, many of whom were under 35 years old.

Pastor Mike McBride, co-founder of Black Church PAC, which sponsored virtual events called Win With the Black Church and First Ladies United for Kamala Harris, the latter comprised primarily of wives of pastors leading black churches, said at least a third of the Black Church PAC’s founding board members belong to black Greek organizations.

Harris, who is member of a black Baptist church in San Francisco and graduate of Howard University, a historically black school in Washington, has appeared at national gatherings of all four Divine Nine sororities over the past 18 months.

Reverend Cynthia Hale. (Courtesy photo)

In July, in a speech to Alpha Kappa Alpha, she mobilized the organization’s political power. “Right now, once again, our nation is looking to the leaders in this room to guide us; energize, organize and mobilize; register people to vote; and get them to the polls in November,” Harris said. “Let us fight for freedom, opportunity and equality. As always, let us fight with optimism, with faith and hope.

The Rev. Cynthia Hale, senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga., heard Harris give the speech and said she was motivated by the words of her famous sorority, as the sisters of sorority.

“As a pastor, activist and AKA,” Hale said, using the sorority’s acronym, “everywhere I go to speak, I share the message that this election is crucial because it will determine the future of our nation for years to come.

On Sunday, Oct. 27, in Dallas, the Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of the city’s Friendship-West Baptist Church and brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, helped lead a Souls to the Polls event at his mega -church, which has a voting center in a large hall where people could vote before Election Day.

“In Texas and North Carolina, through partnerships between Black Greek-letter organizations and the Black Church, we are doing everything we can to make it easier to vote in states where they are trying to suppress the vote,” he said. he told RNS. on October 21, the first day of early voting in Texas, where a long line formed outside his church’s polling location at 8 a.m.

“That’s the other thing that a number of churches and a number of fraternities and sororities are emphasizing more than ever before, and that is that every single person in our community has a voting plan and that we record vote as soon as possible,” Haynes said.

Rhonda Briggins, president of Delta4 Women in Action, a lobbying organization created by the Delta Sigma Theta sorority in 2020, said Greek-letter organizations and congregants have worked together to keep a new voting district open at the Methodist Episcopal Church African Flipper Temple of Atlanta, which is close to Morehouse College, Spelman College and the Interdenominational Theological Center, all historically black institutions.

“The community fought to get a precinct there,” said Briggins, who attends a Baptist church in Atlanta, noting that a “Party to the Polls” event near the church on Sunday was supported by the organizations Divine Nine and other congregations. “We want to make sure we have a high turnout rate so that we can keep this riding open and vibrant, and that it becomes a community riding after this election cycle. »

More than 1,200 members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. converge on the Capitol to advocate and advance strong reforms as part of the 35th anniversary of Delta Days in the nation’s capital, March 12, 2024, in Washington. Legislative priorities include voting rights, education reform, economic justice, environmental justice, and health equity in the halls of Congress. (Eric Kayne/AP Images for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.)

Briggins said her organization also works with churches on “Stroll to the Polls” events in Texas, a play on the “Souls to the Polls” tradition that features the dance moves for which sororities are known.

The ties between Greek-letter societies and the black faith are old and deep. When people gather for the funeral of a Divine Nine member in a black church, before the hymns and eulogy, as Haynes says, “there is a ceremony that helps celebrate life and introduce the “spirit in the afterlife”.

Although Divine Nine religious members have expressed personal support for Harris in interviews, they said members of some sororities and fraternities are among the growing number of black voters who polls show are considering staying home. them or vote for former President Donald Trump.

Benbow, a consultant for Black Church PAC who led a “Millennials for Harris” webinar for the group, said she heard hesitation to support Harris while canvassing, especially among other millennials. “In addition to the anxiety that people feel about what is happening in Palestine and the economy, we also have to deal with the overt and blatant sexism and ‘misogynoir’ that is (about) a black woman running for office. the highest office in the land,” she said, using a common portmanteau of “misogyny” and the French word for “black.”

Lomax, the Michigan State professor, said doubts about Harris, including among members of black churches, sororities and fraternities, are primarily related to her gender.

Tamura Lomax. (Courtesy photo)

“I would say the majority will probably vote for Harris in the election because the majority of black people vote democratically,” Lomax said. “Even in that majority, maybe they still vote democratically, and they’re like, ‘I just don’t vote for a woman.'”

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, urged black women to encourage black men to vote during a recent appearance with Harris to Divine. Faith Ministries in Jonesboro, Georgia. “Brothers, introduce yourselves. We need your voice. Real men vote,” he said, according to the Washington Post.

Hale said sorority sisters will put pressure on the men in their lives in the coming days. “I’m a female pastor of this church who founded this church and so the men know that I’m pretty strong on what I believe and I challenge them many times,” said Hale, who invited members of her chapter AKA attends his church the Sunday before Election Day to pray for the election.

“We’re definitely talking to our husbands, boyfriends, sons, uncles, cousins ​​and nephews to get them to the polls and I think it’s effective.”

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