With Chicago as the site of this year’s Democratic National Convention, I cannot help but feel the ancestors are winking at us. Nobody knew this was going to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s convention. But, with a sense of history and destiny unfolding, here we are. Last week, I stood in the Oval Office as President Biden signed the proclamation designating the 1908 Springfield Race Riot National Monument. It was a profound moment that connected us to a deeper past—one filled with pain, but also resilience and hope.
As we were leaving, a photograph on the desk caught my eye: a picture of President Biden, his mother, and Barack Obama on election night in 2008. They were surrounded by hundreds of thousands in Chicago’s Grant Park. It brought back memories of Obama’s historic presidential journey – a journey which started in Springfield. I was there for Obama’s campaign kickoff in Springfield, standing with friends, including then San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.
At the White House to recognize the Springfield Race Riot 116 years ago. Remembering the Obama campaign and victory of 16 years ago. Knowing that we are once again living history with Kamala Harris’s run for president. All of it drove home the realization of how connected all these stories are.
This week, Illinois is once again the backdrop for history: the official launch of Vice President Harris’s campaign for president. The national conventions of the major political parties are planned years in advance. Just two months ago, few could have imagined one of those parties would be elevating the first Black and South Asian woman to be its nominee – the same woman I stood next to on a freezing cold day in Springfield.
Yet, looking back, it feels almost inevitable. Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket is the continuation of a powerful story. The Springfield Race Riots happened on August 14, 1908, and earlier that same year, in January, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA), was founded at Howard University. It was because of the Springfield Race Riots that the NAACP was formed, and 100 years later, I became the youngest president of that organization.
Now, as one of the most prominent AKAs, Vice President Harris prepares to accept her party’s nominee for president, that picture on President Biden’s desk takes on even more significance. It captures a single moment, but behind it lies countless threads of history. The intertwined sacrifices, stories, and milestones that have led us here. They are a testament to the resilience and strength of those who came before us, and a reminder that history is always unfolding, often in ways we least expect.
My connection to this journey is personal, as it is for many of us. My grandmother told me stories about Shirley Chisholm’s run for President the year before I was born. She spoke of Chisholm with reverence, as a trailblazer who paved the way for others. As a tween, I was captivated by Jesse Jackson’s first Presidential run. By age 14, I was involved in his second campaign, leading youth for Jackson in my county and witnessing the power of grassroots organizing.
When I arrived in Springfield on that cold day to watch Barack Obama announce his presidential bid, it felt like President Lincoln was smiling down on us, as if the struggles of generations were culminating in that moment. As I watched Kamala Harris move through the crowd, I sensed that we might one day witness a similar moment for her. Even before becoming Attorney General of California, Kamala had already established herself as a transformative leader. Her first campaign inspired the launch of Emerge, an organization created to elect women of color to office at the state and local levels. Her impact as District Attorney sparked a wave of progressive, Black candidates running for DA across the country.
Kamala’s organizing prowess was evident when she mobilized tens of thousands of people for Barack Obama at one of the largest rallies in his primary campaign. I repeatedly invited her to address the NAACP’s National Convention during the Obama years. I felt that every civil rights activist needed to know her, and that one day, they would be glad they did. And here we are, in Chicago, on the brink of history once again.
This moment is historic because of who Kamala Harris is and all she represents. But the fact that this is happening in Chicago – the city that sent Barack Obama to the White House and has been home to Reverend Jesse Jackson for decades – makes it even more significant.
Chicago has always been a city of firsts, a city that dares to dream. It was the backdrop for some of the most significant moments in our nation’s history, from the civil rights movement to the election of the first Black president. Now Chicago is giving us one more of these historic moments. And one cannot help but feel that the ancestors are with us.
Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
