Watching History From Afar, Some Harris Supporters Feel ‘Robbed’ Of A Big Moment

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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris speaks at a memorial for victims of the coronavirus pandemic at the Lincoln Memorial on the eve of her inauguration as the first woman, first Black American and first person of Indian heritage to become vice president.





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Shortly after launching her own presidential bid in 2019, Kamala Harris joined her sorors at the Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc., Annual Pink Ice Gala in Columbia, S.C. Members of the sorority across the nation are celebrating one of their own making history as vice president of the United States.





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Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images




Shortly after launching her own presidential bid in 2019, Kamala Harris joined her sorors at the Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc., Annual Pink Ice Gala in Columbia, S.C. Members of the sorority across the nation are celebrating one of their own making history as vice president of the United States.


Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

«I have my fabulous, blinged out pink and green Converse Chuck Taylors that I will be wearing with them as I dance around my house celebrating the inaugural ball, said Wilson, who is Alpha Kappa Alpha’s international secretary. «I’m actually even more excited that I don’t have to wear it in person just in case I can’t zip it all of the way up, because you know the quarantine weight struggle has been real!

Wilson says she’s hopeful that this is the first, but not the last, inauguration for Kamala Harris. And she won’t miss the next one, for the world.

Elation mixed with anxiety

The safety of the president-elect and vice-president elect are top of mind for many people, particularly after the crowd of pro-Trump insurrectionists descended on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a violent assault on the peaceful transition of power.

That reality, coupled with the deadly pandemic that has forced all mass gatherings to be reimagined, has meant that plans have had to change.

Anita Kirti says she and her immediate family are planning to pray together for Harris’ strength and safety, joining with family members who live in India on a Zoom call.

«As excited as I am, I have the same magnitude of stress about how safe she will be considering what has happened in the Capitol a couple weeks ago, said Kirti. «Obviously, I hope that everyone is safe and OK, but I feel like she is a particular target because she is a woman of color, and that is pretty distressing.

Safety was also on Trish Kuper’s mind. Kuper of Edmond, Okla., briefly lived on Capitol Hill after college and described what it was like to see such «ugliness that was in my backyard on Jan. 6.

«To see the very, very real threat of mortal danger, I believe that our elected officials were put into — I’m frightened terribly, she said. «God forbid something should happen to either one of them.

Kuper plans to watch the inauguration at home with her two adult daughters and her granddaughter, who is 17 months old. She has another on the way. She hopes that by the time they’re old enough to understand, a woman in such a high leadership role will be commonplace.

«To see a woman take the office and to put her hand on the book and raise it, and to take that oath to the Constitution, which I as a federal employee have also taken, it’s a powerful thing to say those words, Kuper said, adding, «I can hardly put it into words. It’s something I kind of, in the back of my head, never thought I would really actually get to see, because I always was so worried that the system would be such that it would always be shot down.