Ruth Lynch was texting late Wednesday morning with sorority sisters as she watched Kamala Harris be sworn into the office of U.S. vice president.
As members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the same sorority Harris pledged at Howard University in the early 1980s, they couldn’t have been prouder.
“It was so emotional for me to know that she had a desire and a dream to become vice president, and that her dream came true,” said Lynch, a retired Hopkinsville school administrator who pledged the sorority at Eastern Kentucky University in 1974. She is now president of AKA’s Hopkinsville chapter, Beta Rho Omega. It was chartered in 1937.
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The bond between Black sorority sisters runs deep and lasts a lifetime, said Lynch. Community chapters like the one in Hopkinsville allow members to stay active after they leave college. Locally, they support organizations such as Challenge House, Sanctuary Inc., and the Boys and Girls Club.
“We take our vows for lifelong membership,” Lynch said.
Across the country, AKA sisters have been celebrating Harris’ inauguration alongside President Joe Biden. Many have used two symbols — pearls and Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers — to express their elation for Harris’ achievement as the first woman, the first Black American and the first person of Asian descent to be elected vice president. The pearls are a symbol of AKA, recognizing the sorority’s founders. The sneakers are a go-to fashion statement for Harris. Last fall, a campaign video of Harris in Chucks ran with the caption “laced up and ready to go.”
Lynch’s 9-year-old granddaughter, Malaya Wesley, wanted to follow the example, so she wore pink Chuck Taylors and pearls to Indian Hills Elementary School on Wednesday. She posed for a picture before heading out, and Lynch was happy to share the photo. Malaya’s mother, Arnelle Lynch-Wesley, is also an AKA sister.
“She went to school to represent” and to let others know that seeing Harris become vice president is something huge for her as a young girl, said Lynch.
The longest serving member of Hopkinsville’s AKA chapter, retired teacher Carrie Jones, pledged the sorority in 1964 at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. She is a 1951 graduate of Attucks High School.
Jones said she believes Harris will be an inspiration to young girls, and boys, because she sets an example about achieving goals.
“You can become whatever you wish to become,” Jones said. “To be the first woman vice president, regardless of color, is so inspiring.”
Jones started her teaching career in segregated Kentucky schools — first at Riverview High School in Hickman, where she taught French and English, and later at Lincoln High School in Franklin. She taught briefly at Gainesville Elementary in Hopkinsville and then in Fort Campbell schools for 37 years. She retired in 2005.
“I’ve seen in a lot of things in my life that are no longer in existence,” she said.
Segregated schools are a thing of the past, but the country’s problems with race and gender discrimination persist.
Harris’ election “won’t wipe out all of the discrimination against women, but it should help us understand we can achieve,” Jones said.
Despite many challenges for the country, Jones said she was elated to watch the inauguration.
“I am hopeful that they will bring the country together,” she said. “But I know it won’t happen all at once.”
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
