In 2019, one of Bakari Sellers’ twin daughters was born with a rare liver condition in a birth that nearly killed his wife. Sellers, a former South Carolina politician and current CNN political commentator, has told the story before.
But on Monday night on a video call with more than 53,000 Black men, he couldn’t stop the tears from coming down as he recounted how his wife and daughter are now well and about the support he got during that ordeal.
“I will never forget, the first person to call me …,” he said, pausing for 20 seconds to get the words out. ” … was Kamala Harris. I am not sure people understand the pain and suffering that goes along with being a Black man in this country. I am not sure people understand what it means to stand strong in this country. To have your back against the wall. But I am going to stand with her because she stood with me during my darkest moment when I almost lost my daughter. When I had to protect my wife.”
Sellers said now it was his time to protect Vice President Harris, and an army of Black men agreed.
On Sunday, as President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, the president endorsed Harris to replace him at the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket for the November election. If elected, she would be the first woman and first African American woman to serve as president of the United States.
On Monday night, journalist Roland Martin hosted the online gathering aimed at energizing Black men to get them to go to the polls, open up their wallets and get on the streets to campaign for Harris.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
More than 21,000 men registered for the “Win with Black Men” streaming meeting. Those who couldn’t get in watched on YouTube, Facebook and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as a list of prominent Black male politicians, community leaders, organizers and celebrities turned their cameras on to tell their stories and support Harris. That list included U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
“This moment will go down in history when the brothers got together to say we are all in for the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris,” Warnock said. “It is time to show up not just for Kamala Harris but our families and future.”
Calling former President Donald Trump a “plague on the American consciousness” and an “existential threat to democracy,” Warnock told the men that they would be needed to help Harris stop Trump from regaining the White House.
“Don’t let anybody slow us down asking the question, ‘Can a Black woman be elected president of the United States,’” Warnock said. “Kamala Harris can win. We just have to show up. History is watching us, and the future is waiting on us.”
Dickens told the men that Atlanta was excited about supporting Harris, adding that money and support were already rolling in.
“The victories that we got for Joe Biden, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff (are) going to happen again for Kamala Harris,” Dickens said. “We are fired up. Now it is time to raise the money, get the volunteers and go forward. Let’s keep this thing going. No doubt. No fear.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The meeting of men followed a Sunday night Zoom meeting organized by the political advocacy group Win with Black Women. That meeting drew 44,000 women and raised over $1.5 million for the Harris campaign in just a few hours.
Within the first 20 minutes of Monday’s call, Martin said the men had already raised $130,000 in their quest to raise more than $1.5 million.
Within a half hour, that number had risen to $500,000. Martin said the money will go to the Harris campaign, as well as to grassroots organizations run by Black men in battleground states.
“When we mobilize, we win. We move mountains,” said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, whose name has been mentioned as a potential vice presidential nominee. “For Kamala Harris, who has stood by us, lifted us up and supported us, it is important that she knows that she has an army behind her.”
Black men could be a wild card in the next election. While the Biden-Harris ticket won 92% of Black voters in 2020, a May survey from Pew Research Center showed that 20% of Black men said they would have supported Trump over Biden in November.
Organizers are hoping that meetings like Monday’s, as well as excitement around Harris, could stem a tide that is suggesting that the Republican Party and Trump are stealing voters who have long been entrenched in the Democratic Party’s camp.
According to exit polls, Trump won about 12% support from Black men in 2020, and a recent Pew Research Center report showed a slight uptick in Black men who identify as Republican in 2024 compared to four years ago.
“We have 106 days to make sure that Black men are part of this journey,” said Michael Blake, founder and CEO of Kairos Democracy Project. “We have 106 days to remind the country that you cannot make progress without Black men.”
Wearing a “Defend Democracy” T-shirt, National Urban League President Marc Morial scoffed at the notion that Harris was not qualified for the White House, a narrative that was circulating through conservative media Monday. He also said it was not a time to consider not voting.
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Credit: robert.andres@ajc.com
Credit: robert.andres@ajc.com
“We will not unilaterally disarm. We will not disrespect our ancestors and surrender our power by not voting,” Morial said. “The stakes are clear. Trump is shaking in his boots. He will do anything and everything to not debate Harris. Because he knows she will call him out for all of his transgressions and illegal and misogynistic activities. We must light a flame under our community and build a huge coalition to make this a historic win in November.”
Despite the seriousness of the occasion, the men on the meeting had fun teasing each other. Martin, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, mentioned everyone’s organization or college when they spoke. Before running to the bathroom, Martin playfully yelled at a former White House communications official who could not figure out how to unmute himself.
The Rev. William Barber of Repairers of the Breach challenged everyone on the call to remember the often forgotten Black men who could not make the call — the ones in the barbershops or digging ditches.
“Let’s reach out to those brothers everywhere and lift up a mighty transformative remnant of voters who can change the direction of this nation,” Barber said.
At 10:50 p.m., the call was still going on.
Quentin James, one of the organizers and the president of the Collective PAC and Vote to Live Action Fund, announced that Harris had secured enough delegates to ensure that she would be the Democratic Party’s official nominee.
A whole list of speakers, including Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison and writer Michael Eric Dyson, were still waiting to speak.
More money, at least more than the women, was still waiting to be raised for Harris. By the end of the night, Martin said that 17,000 men had donated $1.3 million.
“Let’s protect Kamala. Let’s be with her like she was there for us,” Sellers said. “We are going to disagree a lot. But let’s put the petty bickering aside. Let’s stand up and be the Black men who change this country. We built this country. I’m rocking with Kamala.”
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