There are several villages that helped raise Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is now the first Black woman, Asian American, HBCU graduate, daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants to be elected vice president of the United States.

Ahead of the election, Black women across the United States were pounding the pavement campaigning for Harris. People in Harris ancestral village of Thulasendrapuram, India, prayed for her and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Bidens victory. Howard University leaders also prayed for Harris and celebrated the historic moment at a special Election Day event. The ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. hosted Stroll to the Polls to fight voter suppression and show support for Harris, their soror.

Though her name was second on the ballot to Bidens, Harris role in the 2020 election at the height of an economic downturn, a pandemic and extreme racial tension is especially significant. Her win as vice president-elect matters so much, not only for Americas history, but for its future, too.

Harris had the audacity to fight for a seat in the White House while proudly leaning in to her identities. In an interview with The Washington Post , Harris said that when she first ran for an office, she struggled with the fact that Americas election processes force candidates to define themselves into neat boxes. But now she doesnt spend much time trying to categorize herself.

I am who I am. Im good with it. You might need to figure it out, but Im fine with it.

Harris, only the second Black woman in this countrys history to be elected a U.S. senator, kicked off her journey to the White House with a presidential bid of her own, and was among the most diverse class of Democratic presidential candidates ever. Announcing her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019, she ran on a platform of providing Dreamers a pathway to citizenship, abortion rights, and pay equity along racial and gender lines. She was one of the only candidates to dedicate room on her platform to the Black maternal mortality crisis. She suspended her campaign on Dec. 3, 2019, citing a lack of funding. But she got another chance to fight when Biden announced her as his running mate in August.

Harris line sisters the women who pledged her sorority with her celebrated the announcement, then immediately got to work supporting her. Lorri Saddler, who crossed AKA with Harris and 36 other women at Howard University in 1986, told HuffPost that she and her line sisters regularly host meetings and prayer calls; Harris supports them through their various ups and downs as they support her. Saddler, the dean of undergraduate admissions at Clark Atlanta University, said Harris rise puts the significance of HBCUs and the Divine Nine historically Black fraternities and sororities in the national spotlight.

It speaks to the strength of the Divine Nine. Shes one of all of us, not just one of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Shes one of all of us, Saddler said. I think at the core of all of us is service. ... And we are hearing that call and we are proceeding accordingly.