St. Louis-area AKA sorority members want expanded federal health care, HBCU education reform
For decades, Black sororities have canvassed communities to raise awareness about voting. This year's presidential election was no different for the sisters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc.
Over the past year, local chapters registered thousands of people to vote across Missouri and Illinois. For many of them, it was personal because this was the first time a sorority member was running for president.
"It speaks about endurance. It speaks about achievement. It speaks about us, being ourselves and being at the table," said Bertherny Williams, president of the Gamma Omega chapter of AKA. "We feel valued as women in this industry, as leaders, as we grow in this work, and so, if nothing else, that is what's so important."
Hundreds of area members congregated at AKA watch parties across the region on Tuesday night in support of Vice President Kamala Harris. Anxious but hopeful members say they want the country's next president to expand women's rights, create economic security for Black Americans and support education reform.
Laura Maupins, the second vice president of the Delta Delta Omega chapter in Illinois, wants children in low-income communities to have equal access to educational resources and said it starts at the federal level.
"I want to see our schools have the same opportunities. I live outside of East St Louis right now, and our grandkids go to school in O'Fallon," she said. "I see these kids coming home with laptops and all the resources that they have that our kids in East St Louis don't have."
Maupins is also looking to the next president to provide better health care for aging Americans. She takes daily medication and has seen an increase in prescription costs over the years, but she said as she ages and heads toward retirement, she knows her medical expenses will become more expensive.
Maupins is also a graduate of the historically Black institution, Lincoln University in Jefferson City, where she said she received a quality education, but because the schools educate predominately Black Americans, she said they often get bad reputations and the reputations lead to lack of exposure and resources.
"I want to make sure that we are getting funding. There are so many HBCUs that don't have the facilities that predominantly white institutions have, and that's because we don't have the sponsorship," she said.
HBCUs across the nation are historically underfunded. Some are at risk of losing their accreditation, and presidents are desperately seeking federal funding to boost enrollment. St. Louis' only HBCU, Harris-Stowe State University, has had its own financial struggles and accreditation issues.
Over the years, the public university has received federal and state financial support for capital improvements. However, university President LaTonya Collins-Smith said Tuesday night at an AKA election watch party in St. Louis that she needs federal dollars to build out the school's infrastructure.
"My hope is that we can continue on the pathway in which we started the last eight years, in making sure that HBCUs are taken care of," she said. "HBCUs are important, and that they are at the forefront of everything that is actually happening."
Collins-Smith wants Congress to create funding that supports improving security measures around historically Black college campuses. She is also working to get federal dollars to expand its cybersecurity program.
Mica Ike, president of the Delta Delta Omega chapter, said she hopes student debt relief becomes a bipartisan issue in Congress again. The Biden administration erased $87,000 of her student loans, and she hopes more people receive relief over the next four years.
After the presidential election, members say their work in the community is never done. AKA social justice committees are focusing on upcoming local races and ballot measures so voters can be well informed during elections next year.
"We have lots going on in the city ... it's always an election year, and that's what's been so important about the work that we've done," said Karissa Anderson-Whitted, chairman of the Gamma Omega social justice initiative. "We don't want to be those people who only come around when it's a [presidential] election year."
