Amid the Red, White, and Blue at the DNC, Another Color Combination Had Particular Meaning

On Thursday night at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, a sea of white washed over the United Center—a tribute to the suffragette white that has long been deployed by female politicians. But many DNC attendees chose to show their support for Vice President Kamala Harris with a different color palette: salmon pink and apple green.

Though they may not constitute the typical patriotic combo of red, white, and blue, pink and green are close to the vice president’s heart: They’re the colors of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. Established in 1908 at Howard University—Harris’s alma mater—AKA is the oldest historically Black sorority in the country and is one of the Divine Nine historically Black Greek-letter organizations.

In addition to the telltale hues, AKAs also nodded to Harris with strings of pearls. Upon induction, each member is given an ivy leaf (the sorority’s symbol) pin rimmed with pearls. Many sisters choose to wear a strand of pearls to honor the Twenty Pearls, representing AKA’s founders and incorporators. Harris has regularly worn pearls throughout her term and even sported a necklace from Irene Neuwirth on Inauguration Day in 2021.

“We’re wearing pink and or green tonight to show solidarity with our sister and our sisterhood and all of the founders who we know are joyfully rejoicing in heaven,” says Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida, who was also a member of the sorority’s board of directors. Wilson wore a white blazer with a pink rose on the lapel (the pink tea rose is AKA’s official flower), a magenta wide-brim hat that matched her trousers, and a string of oversized pearls. The pinnacle of her outfit, however, was her pink-and-green gradient purse embossed with the letters “AKA.”

Representative Frederica Wilson

Some attendees chose to wear pink and green to nod to values that Harris would bring to the White House. “Kamala’s mom told her that she’s going to have many firsts,” says Caroline Price, a DNC attendee and member of AKA’s Mu Omega Omega graduate chapter in Aurora, Colorado, “but also to make sure she’s not the last. That’s a legacy that we carry, not only in our culture, in our lives, but within our sorority.”

That this moment comes more than 115 years after Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded was not lost on NAACP chair emeritus Roslyn Brock. “The time has come for Black women to have a return on their investment,” Brock says of the historic support of Black women for the Democratic party. Brock wore a green dress with a large pink cloth flower pinned to her lapel. “There are other countries in the global village where we live who’ve had women leaders—and who have been very effective women leaders—and now it’s time for the United States of America to do the same.”

Below see the women (and men) who paid homage to Kamala Harris and Alpha Kappa Alpha through fashion at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.