The Watch the Yard platform has 2 million followers, and its content reaches about 13 million people each month, Rabb says. Because Divine 9 sorority and fraternity members are encouraged to stay in the club after college, the club’s audience is intergenerational, with Gen Z and Baby Boomers thriving in the comments section, Rabb notes. “We can reach students in swing states. We can reach students in the Pacific Northwest, because that’s where D9 is. If we can reach that AKA in Oregon, we can reach her classmates.”
On July 30, Watch the Yard announced an official partnership with Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote. Founded in 2018, the nonpartisan nonprofit aims to increase participation in all elections. On Watch the Yard’s Instagram, followers can quickly check their registration status by clicking a link in the profile.
“As Black people have been fighting for the right to vote, the Divine 9 has always been involved with democracy and encouraging people to vote,” Love said. Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the second-oldest African-American sorority, spearheaded the suffrage movement in 1913 as its first public service event. “As far as voting goes, this is just an extension of the work the Divine 9 has always done.”
Black Greek organizations are organizing online, not just publicly, but privately as well. WIRED found that more than 8,000 members of Alpha Kappa Alpha created an unofficial, secret GroupMe with the goal of increasing voter turnout across the community. The privacy of the group allows members to share information about both candidates’ key campaign platforms, strategize voter registration in underserved communities, and share opinions about the candidates without the pressure of maintaining official protocol.
While the Divine 9 does not have the mandate to endorse specific candidates, alumni from HBCUs such as Howard University are campaigning. Howard University Bison PAC, a project of Collective PAC, a political action committee that works to elect more black officials for political equality, is bringing together alumni to raise money for Harris-Waltz.
The PAC is not affiliated with any of the D9 organizations, but many of its members are also D9 members. According to an internal email reviewed by WIRED, the first “HU Bison For Kamala” Zoom call on July 25 attracted more than 4,000 participants and raised more than $151,000 for the Harris campaign. “In the next two weeks, we will be launching Bison PAC phone/text ‘Zoom parties’ to encourage Black voters in battleground states to support Kamala Harris for President,” the email read.
The email to PAC members also linked to a social media best practices guide created by Cameron Trimble, Howard University alumnus and founder of Hip Politics Platform. The guide is titled “How to be helpful in the digital and social media world” and includes tips such as sharing and engaging only with positive content about Kamala, not engaging with negative comments or content to avoid getting spiked in the algorithm, and creating your own WhatsApp or internal group chat to share verified information and respond quickly.
“We want to raise as much money as we can for Kamala, we want all Bisons (Howard University students and alumni) to be registered to vote and we want to give people factual information to spread in their communities,” said Stephanie Brown James, co-founder and senior advisor of Collective PAC. “Long term, we want to make Bison PAC an independent organization to support other Howard University alumni who are running for office across the country. We want to be involved in the political process and have a role in choosing our leaders.”
