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But a raging pandemic and the violent Jan.6 siege on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob has hindered her.
So on Wednesday Murray – the founder of a pro-Harris group, Mamas for Momala – celebrated the inauguration just as she had volunteered during the campaign: from a distance. She donned a sweater depicting the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority that she shares with Harris, ate a special lunch with her mother’s okra, and joined her fellow “Mamas” for a night out on Facebook.
Across the country this week, black women have followed suit – dressing, toasting and gloating at home and online as the former US Senator and California Attorney General made history.
“I am not going to allow the plans and plots of these white supremacist terrorists to interfere with the joy that I have,” Murray, 39, said from his home in the northern Virginia suburb of Washington. “This moment belongs to all of us who have worked so hard.”
‘We delivered’
In power, Harris “will be part of it, but she will bring 10,000,” said Glynda Carr, CEO of Higher Heights for America, paraphrasing late poet Maya Angelou. “She’s a woman. She’s a woman of color. She’s a black woman, a daughter of immigrants. She’s from a historically Black Greek Letter organization. She went to a historically black college.”
“As she governs, she brings those voices with her,” said Carr, whose organization focuses on empowering black women.
Pressing then-candidate Biden, “I made a promise that, literally, if you pick a black vice president, black women will deliver her to you,” Brown said Wednesday.
“And we delivered.”
But Brown’s work in the 2020 election came at a huge price. She contracted Covid-19 in June while on the campaign trail and endured death threats for her very public activism. And over the weekend, a longtime Georgian organizer Brown worked with died – another heartbreak in the parade of Americans lost to the pandemic.
Mandrels and beads
Brown said his emotions on Wednesday fluctuated between “extreme hope” and deep sadness at the injustice and racial divisions that still persist.
But she was determined to celebrate. She watched the inauguration on Atlanta television – adorned with pearls, a ‘dazzled’ pair of Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers and an electric blue dress, given by a friend to thank Brown for her role in the bluing. Democratic Republic of Georgia.
“Ultimately what black women have become masters of is not allowing the world to steal our joy,” Brown said.
Across the country, women of all ages and races pulled out their glue guns to pay a happy tribute to Harris by decorating their Chuck Taylors, the brand she so often sported on the campaign trail.
DeVaughn, a grandmother from Austin, Texas, who works part-time at an Amazon fulfillment center, said women identified with Harris’ high-low style: “elegant and sophisticated” pearls associated with “really, really comfortable” shoes.
This month’s violent siege on the U.S. Capitol saddened DeVaughn because, she said, it was “so disrespectful” of the historic nature of Harris’ victory. She said the pandemic and heavy security had deprived Harris of the chance to enjoy her day as fully as her predecessors.
But DeVaughn said nothing would stop him from celebrating this week either. Her inaugural wardrobe: a silky black cocktail dress and purple chucks covered with pearls.
For many, the party began days before Harris was sworn in on Wednesday. On an online “Sip” Sunday sponsored by Higher Heights of America and Essence magazine, a who’s who of black women in politics celebrated both Harris’ success and her role in it.
They also had fun.
Spinderella – the DJ known as part of hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa – entertained the virtual crowd. Samara Davis of the Black Bourbon Society explained to attendees how to make The Kamala, a sour whiskey concoction whose muddled raspberries and mint garnish evoked the distinctive pink and green colors of the AKA sorority.
Carr of Higher Heights and other activists also said they were preparing for the political battles that would begin as early as this week. This includes stepping up support for Biden’s Covid-19 recovery contingency plan, raising the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour, and helping raise another black woman in the US Senate to fill the gap. empty now that Harris has risen to higher office.
A similar path
Murray appealed to President Barack Obama’s campaign to break down barriers over a dozen years ago, but she felt compelled to do even more for the Biden-Harris ticket – given the parallels between her life and Harris’ story.
She too was raised in California by a single mother and traveled across the country to attend Howard University, one of the largest HBCUs in the country. She promised AKA in her sophomore year, graduated in 2003 and earned her law degree from Harvard.
Last year, she partnered with more than 5,000 women across the country to help make Wednesday’s story a reality – calling, writing and texting voters in battlefield states of the United States. Arizona to Florida as Election Day approaches. Among their efforts: texting 200,000 residents of Pennsylvania, encouraging them to register to vote. They also mailed 20,000 postcards to low-propensity voters in Georgia to encourage them to vote in both the presidential election and the January 5 Senate run-off.
Murray was as busy as ever on Wednesday. She joined her group’s Facebook watch party. She followed the inauguration on television with her husband and children. She texted almost constantly with her sorority sisters and other friends.
And when Harris, resplendent in a purple coat and dress, took the oath of office, Murray joined her two daughters, ages 5 and 2, in wild cries.
“The best parts of American society were on display today – unlike what we saw two weeks ago,” Murray said. “It feels like a dark cloud has risen.”
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