ROANOKE, VA – Kamala Harris will make history Wednesday when she is sworn in as the first African American and Asian American Vice President of the United States.
Before most people knew her as vice president-elect, Americans knew Harris for her role as California’s Attorney General and later a U.S. Senator.
Like Harris, Lori Baker-Lloyd, of Roanoke, is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) at Howard University.
Baker-Lloyd said she’ll never forget how she felt when Harris officially became vice president-elect.
“This is validation, that you know, we need diversity. That’s what the United States is made up of and, you know, this is not a tearing apart but definitely a coming together,” said Baker-Lloyd..
Marylen Harmon, also an AKA, said Harris’s journey will likely inspire more students to pick Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“It was a serious business of getting what you needed to know and know for not just for academics, but for life, and so they brought the best out of us,” explained Harmon.
Both women believe that Harris’s legacy as an AKA and HBCU graduate shows that the country wants to see more diversity and representation on Capitol Hill.
“She’s coming into work, and she’s coming into work for the underserved. She has empathy and she knows what it’s like to be on the other side of being different,” said Harmon.
Harris, along with President-elect Joe Biden, will be sworn in on Wednesday.