Vice President Kamala Harris blasted former President Donald Trump for his comments questioning her identity as a Black woman during a Wednesday evening speech to a Black sorority gathering in downtown Houston.
The city is at the center of U.S. politics for the second time in a week amid an extraordinary stretch that has seen Harris rise to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race July 21. Harris flew into Houston Wednesday afternoon to attend a fundraiser before addressing thousands in attendance at the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.’s 60th International Biennial Boule.
Harris used the opportunity to contrast herself with Trump, the Republican nominee, while rallying the gathered sorority members. The organizing power of Black sororities will be critical in the vice president’s bid to become president, Harris said.
“When we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize, nations change, and when we vote, we make history,” Harris told the crowd, recalling Black sororities’ history of activism and advocacy.
Texas is not a battleground state likely to determine the outcome of the election, but Harris’ trips to the city have been used to rally key voting blocs in her bid for the presidency. Harris spoke at the American Federation of Teachers’ national conference last Thursday. The AFT is the second largest teachers’ union in the country, a core source of support for Democratic candidates.
Harris’ speech Wednesday rallied another group of the Democratic base, Black women. Harris is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Both sororities are part of the “Divine Nine” council of historical Black fraternities and sororities, formally called the The National Pan-Hellenic Council.
“When I look out at everyone here, I see family,” Harris said. “We share a vision for the future of this nation. Our vision is one where we realize the promise of America.”
Jammie Ivory attended Wednesday’s event sporting her pink and green to support Harris, her sorority sister. Ivory grew up in Acres Homes and was initiated into Pearland’s Psi Mu Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. in June.
“This is history,” Ivory said. “As someone who was raised up in a community that did not see Divine Nine at all to now see someone that looks like me up there …. (it) is very emotional.”
Southside resident Tisa Jones, a member of Sigma Gamma Rho from her time at the University of Houston, said Harris’ decision to speak at the event united the sorority sisters ahead of the November election.
“She was an (Alpha Kappa Alpha). We’re all a part of the Divine Nine organization, so it’s all about unity to help old and young uniting to get out and vote,” Jones said.
Harris drew a sharp line between herself and Trump, telling the crowd the former president “wants to take us backward,” pointing to conservative promises to end the Affordable Care Act, cut Social Security and further erode abortion access in the country.
Her most direct attack on Trump came in response to comments he made earlier Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists’ conference in Chicago.
During a question-and-answer session with Trump, he falsely claimed Harris, who attended a historically Black university and is of Jamaican and Indian heritage, once identified as Indian, then, “all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she became a Black person.”
Harris dismissed Trump’s comments as “the same old show” of divisiveness and disrespect and said “the American people deserve better.”
“The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts,” Harris said.
Her appearance at the sorority event had been planned prior to Biden’s decision to drop his reelection bid and Harris becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee as part of a “summer series of engagement” with key voting blocs for the Biden-Harris administration, namely Black people, young people and women, according to a White House official.
Harris recently gave keynote speeches at Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.’s Grand Boulé in Indianapolis last week and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.’s 71st Boule in Dallas earlier this month.
Harris will speak at a Celebration of Life for the late Congresswoman Jackson Lee, who died July 19, at 11 a.m. on Thursday before flying back to Washington, D.C., according to the White House.
Staff writer Monique Welch contributed to this report.
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