Okay. Where can I put this so that it's off camera?

We've been taking the assignment on the road, filming interviews with people who find themselves in the heat of the election spotlight.

This is the production team. That's Mike. This is Rafi. Hi Rafi.

And this episode takes us to Georgia and specifically Atlanta, a hub of historically black colleges and universities and the social networks born from those campuses. The rise of Kamala Harris, a member of the oldest black sorority in the country, has put the focus on the potential organizing power of these groups in a community in a state Trump famously lost by 11,000 votes.

So when you start to talk about endorsing particular candidates, you also start to ostracize those members. Who don't have an opportunity to support the candidate of their choice through this organization. And so it's a very delicate walk.

This year, Kamala Harris's sorority launched its first political action committee. What role will the black Greek letter organizations known as the Divine Nine play in this election? Which voters can they turn out? And is this a turning point in their storied history of activism? I'm Audie Cornish. And this is the assignment. Two ways. Is that the train?

Yeah. We're at the West End Marta station.

We are truly downtown. We are truly downtown. Well, not downtown, actually.

So we're in the west end of that Atlanta, historic neighborhood where lots of civil rights leaders have came and made their mark from all over the country. But we're in the heart of Georgia's fighting. Fifth Congressional District that I'm honored to represent, serving in the legacy of Ambassador Andrew Young and the late Congressman John Lewis.

'That's us Representative Nikki Mo Williams. We're sitting in this abandoned parking lot blind by a rusted down chain link fence across the street, the Atlanta Marta station, with trains roaring past us every few minutes. Looking down behind us, a bright painted mural with the words black girl magic next to the face of a brown girl in pigtails. This is, in many ways, the heart of her district, which has historic ties to the civil rights movement of the 60s, a movement best known for church leaders. But most of those leaders were also members of black Greek letter organizations Martin Luther King, Alpha Phi Alpha, John Lewis, Phi Beta Sigma and the fraternities and sororities that make up the so-called Divine Nine still boast influential members today.

I am a member of the Alpha Beta Omega Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha in South Fulton, right here in that metro Atlanta area. And we all have a service area where we do the work of civic engagement, where we are doing the work around economic empowerment.

Congresswoman Williams is not just part of this legacy. Her husband used to work for John Lewis. She cut her teeth campaigning for people like Stacey Abrams, whose gubernatorial run helped reshape Democratic odds in the state.

Stacey Abrams came onto the scene way before the national politics realized who she was, but organizing here in Atlanta and was a state rep and then became the minority leader, the first black woman to leave either chamber in the Georgia General Assembly and found a way to tap into voters who were looking for someone who was willing to fight for them. And that's what I have learned, that voters want someone who will stand up and fight for them and fight for their rights and their freedoms. And that's what makes me so excited about the work that I'm able to do this cycle with my sorority sister. Yeah, at the top of the ticket, Kamala Harris, because she's fighting for those freedoms. And you hear a lot about the reframe around joy and bringing joy back to this work. And some people will push back and say joy doesn't pay the bills and joy doesn't pass policies. But joy is something that most Americans are looking for. After so many years of division and hate in our political process.

So can I ask something bluntly, which is that I don't know if Democrats need help getting, for instance, college educated black women to vote like...

Which is why it's about the communities that we serve...

Yeah. So expand on that because if you look at the demographics, black women, especially ones with college degrees, Democrats have that in the 70. So 80%. Right.

I mean but that needs to be in the 90s, which we're working on.

But are there other communities they need they need help with that Harris would need help with.

Absolutely And I mean it's the conversation around it's not just if someone is going to show up and vote for Donald Trump, it is if they're going to show up at all. But that's the point.

There's working class voters, college educated voters, and there is a gap there. Right?

But I think you're missing what I'm saying when I'm talking about the communities that we serve. It's not our membership. There's a chapter that service right here in the West End where we have children who might not even know that college is within their reach, even though the Atlanta University Center is in walking distance from here. And so those are the communities that we serve every day to make sure that every child growing up here in the West End understands that whether they are looking for an apprenticeship or a college education, that there is a pathway to success in this country. So we serve communities. We don't serve ourselves as a membership. And so those are the people that we are working with every day to make sure that we are going back and doing the voter registration and the civic engagement about and talking about the importance of this election cycle and why they should turn out to vote. So it's not about our membership is doing that work. We're not encouraging our members to go and vote because we are the we're going to show up. We're going to show up in force in numbers. But it takes us going back to the communities that we serve every day to encourage them to show up and to give them their reasons on why it matters that they show up in the ballot.

The reason why I ask that is because it has been a criticism, I'd say, like within the black community about the role of Greek letter organizations, about classism, about the things that separate them from the rest of the community. And are those challenges that have to be overcome with these big projects?

Absolutely. And it's a narrative that we seek to reshape and refinorm every day. I was I was raised in rural Alabama in a home with no indoor plumbing and no running water. So I understand the different walks of life that so many Americans live every day. And I know the impact that Divine Nine organizations had on me growing up and having the ability to speak.

You've heard that criticism before?

Absolutely. I have heard that criticism and I seek to change that narrative. But the work that we do in the communities every day and I even encourage my sorority sisters and other divine nine members to we have to look outside of the bubbles that we get to live in, because this is a privilege to live in this space. And so we have to understand that when we make it to certain points in life, there are a lot of other people that we have a responsibility to bring along with us.

'I am interested in how Vice President Harris sort of changes the game, so to speak, because of her affiliation with AKAs. One of the people we heard from was former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial. And he said, I mean, people had a different feeling around Barack, referring to Barack Obama. Barack was symbolic. Barack was not divine. Nine. Barack was not HBCU. I have two ways of thinking about this. One, that you, despite all the numerous people who have been members of the Divine Nine, whether it's Thurgood Marshall or John Lewis that have this history. But in the end, the person who became the first African-American president, biracial president didn't. So what does it feel like now? I mean, does it actually do you feel a difference in energy or support or interest?

So I definitely have heard people saying that it feels Obama esque. The organizing that is happening. But I feel something completely different on the ground here, especially in battleground Georgia, where we are have the largest consortium of HBCU's in the country. And all of these Divine Nine organizations based here. And so the energy around it is different when you are organizing for one of your own. When Vice President Kamala Harris showed up at, I guess, these sorority parties that are actually bullies doing the service work in our organizations. She showed up as understanding what she was walking into, an understanding the work that happens year round in our organization.

'And it's intriguing because the former president, when he first entered the race, there was a struggle in winning over African-American leaders, especially in the South, some in Congress. And there was a little bit of like, who is this guy?

And she as that I mean an HBCU alarm Howard University and just all of the different connections make a huge difference because then she has these validators that are out there way before she even has to enter a space or a room validating who she is because they know her lived experiences. And she the fight that she has for our HBCU's is different because she's an HBCU alum.

Is this the beginning of something, the end of something, a turning point? When you think of the Divine Nine and its participation in this election? Where do you see it?

Well, I think it is definitely the beginning of more people paying attention to the work that we're doing, especially now where so many of our Divine Nine organizations are starting political action committees so that they can endorse candidates and can be more engaged. I know that my sorority has an affiliated PAC that was just formed. I know that the men of Omega, I have an affiliated PAC that they have formed so that they can get more engaged. The men of Kappa Alpha. I have worked with the Crimson PAC for cycle after Cycle now. But it's not getting a lot of attention because that is not the main work that they're doing in the community. But it is new work that is definitely worth elevating because it is a difference that we can make when we're winning elections like we did in Georgia by only 11,780 votes, then we know that every vote matters. And if we have trusted messengers for communities, getting those people out will make the difference.

Well, Congresswoman Williams, thank you so much for talking with us here.

In the heart of the heart of the fighting fifth.

In the heart of the fighting fifth by the train station. When we come back, a local member of AKA Gone Viral for her clever spin on a voter turnout campaign.

I'm rolling on this one. Okay, Audie. And we're rolling.

You know, I can't explain the viral voter turnout campaign stroll to the polls or even the origin of strolling better than AKA member Maisha Land.

So strolling is a is a culture that we do in black Greek organizations that was actually created by Alpha Kappa Alpha in the 40s. We used to call it party walking where you did choreography and you went to a party and you did it together or you came to the campus and you demonstrated your pride for your organization. It then became a fitness opportunity as a dance teacher. A dance school owner.

Maisha Land grew up in Atlanta. Her dad was a pastor at Rush Memorial Congregational Church. It's about a mile away from where we're sitting. Her mom was a long time city council member. In 2020, Maisha managed to put strolling in the national spotlight kind of by accident.

When Covid hit, I couldn't open our dance studios and I was watching just people on the Internet, people online and on social media, particularly Facebook, talking about how depressed they were, how trapped they felt. So I decided to take my listserv of people and create a Facebook group called Stroll through Fitness. I would literally have a free stroll class online and Facebook Live, and every weekend the theme would be different.

So you're taking this choreography that's part of your culture being in a sorority. And for you, again, this is part of your community. You're not thinking very much of it. Not at all. When what happened When it kind of caught attention.

So when Kamala Harris became the first woman to receive the Democratic nominee for vice president, the theme that weekend was to celebrate her. I coordinated a class with each organization to teach a say the same story on a different version. Then we decided we were going to record it. It was simply to celebrate her nomination.

But it was also distinctive because, as you said, you know, these organizations, they have their own distinct traditions. Their distinct choreography to come together is not all that common in these kind of everyday moments.

Yeah, you don't see a lot of unity struggles. We have a very healthy competition.

Yes.

We're going to call it healthy competition, right. With one another. Even though we serve some of the same support systems in our in our communities.

What this reflects is that unity is not so easy. It's not even within the sorority community. There are many political differences, very.

Much.

Insensitivities. What has it been like in this election year?

So for the first time and I can't say this, I'm only 50 years old, I turned half a century before yesterday, but for the first time that I can remember in a very long time for our people. Stroll to the polls made voting celebratory, not obligatory.

I see.

Because that is the momentum.

This element, especially in the black community of, you know, voting is our right heritage responsibility. It's hard fought. It's it is all work in a way.

Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast'ning rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died. It's this thing we carry? Like a cross. Like close cross. And sometimes the heaviness of it. Causes an anxiety that prevents people from wanting to participate. Stroll to the polls. Change that. I remember breaking down, crying in my car as I was at a voting the first day of early voting. And someone sent me a message with women from Florida walking through a part. And of course, you know, these are older members. And so they were just doing the chant, step clap. You know, if if you're a Baptist, you know what I'm talking about. But, you know, the choir comes here is the I call the every praise class, Right. But there were hundreds of women walking to a party to go vote. But there are blue and gold and red and white and pink and gray shows that they had made themselves. And they hit the dance and they were trying to reproduce what we were doing. And people were reproducing it all over the place, and they were singing and chanting and going. And I really, for the first time, it hit me. We're about to change the world sister.

Now, this is the most kind of romantic description of it. And I want to ask the questions that are, you know, for instance, when it comes to Kamala Harris, she she doesn't really need help winning over more black women. Right?

Or does she?

Tell me more.

We are not monolithic.

Because we have been hearing more about Trump curious voters, especially younger black voters who don't feel the same allegiances to the institutions like black churches or Greek letter organizations.

Absolutely. Having these long conversations with my own child.

Who is how old?

24. Okay. Sitting with Soros in undergraduate chapters and black Greeks who are who are 30 and below and having this conversation, we make assumptions that are not so. I am the daughter of a Democratic mother and a Republican father. I'm the I'm the daughter of a father who chair black Republicans for Obama. We are not monolithic. My younger members of my communities, I own a dance studio. The people that I coach in pageantry, they come to me and they sit. Why would we vote? They were ambivalent about voting. They were saying, we're confused. We don't understand. They had so many issues and had either chosen to tap out. Or to vote independent. Because they just felt like this party system didn't serve them. They didn't understand the issues. They didn't understand the history. We make a lot of assumptions because as our generation who was so entrenched in things...

'You've lived if you're 24, you have lived through the election of the first African-American president. It's not some faraway conceptual thing. And you don't necessarily, I would think, politically feel like you need to adhere to a group dynamic to be a political individual.

I remember playing in my great grandfather's shoes and knowing him personally. I have never done anything to verify this, but from what I understand, from what my grandmother shares with me, my great grandfather's father was a slave. I knew someone whose parent was a snake. That context doesn't exist for them.

For your own child who's 24 years old. In a way.

I remember as a child right now, if you take the street Lee Street, it's going to turn into Main Street. And about four miles, there's a place called Our Crickets where all the black people go to have wings and have a great time. There used to be a Shoney's, and I remember going to the Shoney's on Saturdays or Sundays. And the Klan in full garb, standing out and passing out pamphlets. I remember my mother giving me the money to walk up to that Klans member and buy a pamphlet. And I went inside and set this Shoney's breakfast table, and my mother and I read what was in there and had conversations about it because my mother taught me, If you don't understand how other people think, you can never fight it. You can't fight enemies. You don't understand. Then our children have not been connected to What that what was.

'So to your point about this, when you think about someone like your own child who's in their mid-twenties, it also makes me think of the fact that at HBCU's their voting rates lag behind white institutions, predominantly white institutions. Is some of the stroll to the poll effort, some of this energy, is it directed at women like you or is it directed at a different generation?

When it first was created, it wasn't directed at anything. It was celebrating the movement.

But who are you hoping to mobilize.

I am mobilizing young people. As a matter of fact, the recruitment of the filming that we're doing this weekend has more younger people in it. Members of clark atlanta universities at many universities chapters, or Richmond graduates from various colleges that have a younger appeal and a younger look. I think it's important to see that type of engagement, but at the same time. Getting. So we have 487,000 people in the state of Georgia between the ages of 18 and 24 who are registered to vote and only vote at one time or never voted. A half a million. 18 to 24. But we have to not just get them registered. We have to motivate them to vote and we have to educate them in why their decisions are important and not just for this presidential election, because the people that impact your everyday lives are your local elections. And people don't don't vote in their local elections. I think what we have in this election is the opportunity to see ourselves for the first time in places that we never dreamed of seeing ourselves as women of color.

Does this require the Divine Nine or people who are in these organizations to start to believe that they can be politically active? You don't have to. That you don't have to back a candidate. But could these organizations be doing more and not just in the big election years?

So every year. For Alpha Kappa Alpha. I know for Delta Sigma Theta.

That they just started a political action committee. Right? And they're not the only ones. So clearly there is a decision to be more active. And was this a long time? Did this take too long? How do you think about it?

'Think there's a decision to be brave. So you have to remember in politics, there are politics and there's politricks. Everyone is with you when they're looking, but when they're not, you're under attack. And so what I think I see a lot, not just in our Division nine, but in African-American organizations, particularly those who hold five A once these nonprofit corporations. Is this the tech? Using codes of tax or codes of law. When you win to attack you. So what you see is an order to mobilize. For years, African-Americans have moved in silence to avoid the tyranny that comes after when the cameras are gone. So there have been conversations of, we can't do this because we're a nonprofit over. But many people, even our members, don't understand there are different types of nonprofits. There are five of 501c8s...

Where you're saying there is a fear that we're vulnerable to political attack if we step up and are too public.

Absolutely. And these particular 501sccan endorse in state and federal elections. But then you also have to remember our organizations are not monolithic. We have Democrats, we have Republicans, we have independents. So when you start to talk about endorsing particular candidates, you also start to ostracize those members who don't have an opportunity to support the candidate of their choice through this organization. And so it's a very delicate walk. And I think a lot of times when you don't see that visibility, you see us more with voter registration, you see us more with those things that seem to be nonpartisan. It's because we have to balance. The harmony of our membership as William. Right. What does that look like? And for the first time in a long time, particularly as women of this award is finding this balance, and I'm not speaking on behalf of my sorority or anybody's sorority. I'm speaking as my issue and what I see. And I think that's important.

So Georgia, people think about it as a swing state. Now, it could be very close. You gave the data, right, about how many potential voters could be out there that you could bring into the system. What are you hoping that this moment is for Greek letter organizations? Is it a stepping up for a long lasting movement? Is it just for this cycle? What would you like to see?

'A member of Sigma Gamma Rho, in a meeting that I was in, said something so profound that it has rested in my spirit. This young sister said. We are not apathetic about voting. We are ambivalent about it. Because I've watched you. We've watched you. We've watched you go and vote. We've watched you. And everything that you make happen for us in a 3 to 4 period of time, they make a rule and they reverse everything you do. And we don't want to be a part of that. Why fight for something that's not going to be there? How? How do we how do we make this so that what we do matters and it sticks? Because everything you all fight for, for us, we fight and we fight and we fight and we're tired. They are emotionally tired from watching us fight and not just experiencing their own pain, but watching their mothers and grandmothers fight and lose and having that sense of mourning. Knowing that the women that that that fight for us can't really change it in their opinion. So does the fight really matter? And I say to them, it matters because, baby, if you can't move the line, hold the line. Hold the line. We need you. Hold the line. We need you. Because it's just like car maintenance. You can drive your car, but if you don't put oil in it, you don't put gas in it. You don't maintain it. Eventually, the car stop working. That is what voting is. It is a maintenance of the vehicle that you have to make differences in your community. Hold the line, maintain it. We need to. Young people, men. We need you. Women. We need you. And we can't do this alone as a people, as the VI nine sororities, as a VI, nine fraternities. They're not enough of us. But as you joined us in our fight, you have to understand that you have to stay in the fight was not just when it feels good for you to look good and say, look, I'm I'm aligned with the African-American community or the woman community. You have to stay in the trenches. And that's that's what I say. Stay in the trenches. We need you.

'That's my Asia land of Atlanta. And we need the assignment. We need you to help us with this season's episodes on the road. Where would you like us to visit next? Call and leave us your assignments. The number is (202)?854-8802. This episode of the show, a production of CNN audio, was produced by Grace Walker, Gralen Brashear and Osman Noor. Our senior producer is Matt Martinez. Support for the assignment on the road this week came from Dan Dzula, our technical director. Also, special thanks to senior photojournalists Michael Callaway and Rafael Rodriguez. As well as our video editor, Isaac Ewert. Steve Lickteig is executive producer of CNN Audio. We also had support from Haley Thomas, Dan Bloom, Alex Man Ussery, Robert Mathers, John Diadora, Lenny Steinhart, James Andrus, Nicole Passthrough and Lisa Amaral. Special thanks to Katie Hinman. I'm Audie Cornish. And thank you for listening.