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Local Black leaders energized by U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris

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Observer-Reporter

Joyce Ellis, executive director of the LeMoyne Community Center in East Washington, lost her battle with cancer in December.

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JoJo Burgess in a 2018 photo when he was elected second vice chairman of the Washington County Democratic Committee. With him are Ben Bright, chairman, and Christina Proctor, first vice chairman.

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Rev. Anita Lovell

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Kierra King speaks about the significance of Juneteenth in this photo from June.

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Organizer Faith McClendon speaks prior to a march in Canonsburg in June.

The Rev. Anita Lovell remembers tagging along with her mother when she did housekeeping work for white women in Mt. Lebanon.

The experience left Lovell feeling like a second-class citizen as a young Black girl.

But with the selection by Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, a woman of Jamaican and Indian descent, young Black girls can now have solid dreams that anything is possible for them, Lovell said.

“I teared up,” said Lovell, pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Canonsburg. “It’s extraordinary.”

“It’s such a powerful moment for women everywhere, especially for African American women and Indian Americans. It’s incredible.”

JoJo Burgess of Canton Township said he had a similar experience when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008.

His then-10-year-old son turned to Burgess and said, “Daddy, he looks just like me. I could someday become president.”

“She’s the most qualified person for that job,” said Burgess, a steelworker who spoke at the Black Lives Matter rally in Washington in June.

Joyce Ellis, executive director of the LeMoyne Community Center in East Washington, said many people have been energized by Biden’s selection of Harris as his running mate.

“Black females have always felt underserved,” Ellis said.

She said Harris, a former California attorney general, has a calming nature and a powerful voice.

“This is such big news. It doesn’t get any bigger than this,” Ellis said.

She said there is a movement among college sororities across the country to get Biden elected because of Harris, who joined Alpha Kappa Alpha at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

“This has sparked a new sense of energy like I saw when Obama ran,” Ellis said.

Burgess, a member of the county Democratic committee, said some people have been claiming that it was sexist and racist for Biden to pick a Black woman for vice president.

“It’s not racist and sexist for someone to participate in a process who has been left out for so long,” he said.

Kierra King, 21, is eligible to vote in her first presidential election in November, and she is glad she has the choice to vote for a Black woman.

The Canonsburg woman is entering her senior year at Clark Atlanta University, the first historically Black university in the southern United States, and feels a connection with Harris, a graduate of Howard, another HBCU.

“I was excited. I feel like this is a big milestone, not just to have a woman, but a Black woman who graduated from an HBCU in a position where she could be elected as vice president,” said King.

King said she had been hopeful that Biden would choose Stacy Abrams to be his running mate on the Democratic ticket, but will throw her support behind Harris.

“I believe she is very powerful,” said King, who thinks Harris will be influential if she and Biden win the election.

“I’m really looking forward to the debates. I like that she’s not afraid to voice her opinions, and I know she’ll go all in. The debates will be interesting,” said King.

King is concerned about the racist attacks Harris already is facing, including a false birther conspiracy theory that has been circulating.

King recalled that Obama was elected as president when she was a third-grader, and classmates made racist remarks about him to her.

“I do know (Harris) will have to deal with things like the birther issue. People are saying crazy things. My little sister is going into middle school and I worry about her hearing negative things,” said King.

Faith McClendon of Canonsburg was excited about selection of Harris as the next potential vice president.

“It’s really important that we do have that representation,” said McClendon. “I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. We need people in the White House who will listen to us.”

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