Travel canceled, TVs unplugged: How these Black women are facing Inauguration Day
Those who supported Kamala Harris are reframing their January 20th plans with less celebration — but they’re holding on to the potential to believe in what’s next.
2025-01-20 05:00
5:00
January 20, 2025
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From historically Black sororities to reproductive justice advocates, Black women across the country showed up in record numbers to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November, and many made plans to show up again today in Washington, D.C., or gather around their televisions at home or party with friends to celebrate her victory on Inauguration Day.
Since President Donald Trump won the election, thousands of Black women’s plans have been undone.
“As soon as we got home and we turned on the TV, we saw where it was going. It was really, really sad because we really thought that this was going to be so historic for her to win and be the first woman president, plus a soror at that,” said Lavosha Payne-Prescott, an Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA) member who booked two hotel rooms in Washington prior to the election to ensure if her soror won the presidential race, she would be there to witness history.
Some 92 percent of Black women voted for Harris, according to Washington Post exit polls. The 19th’s reporting fellows spoke with three of them who had planned to attend Inauguration Day events until the election results confirmed Trump as the president.
Here are their plans now:
On election night, My’Kayle Pugh watched the results with her father at home. Although she knew it was going to be a close race, around 10:30 p.m., anxiety began to take hold of her. Harris had fallen behind, and there was little hope that she would catch up, even as ballots continued to be counted.
My’Kayle Pugh (Courtesy of My’Kayle Pugh)She saw a look of impassivity on her father’s face and decided to go to sleep, praying the results would flip in Harris’ favor once morning arrived. However, the following day, she learned that Trump, boasting 312 votes from the Electoral College and significant gains from critical swing states, would begin his second presidency on January 20.
In the weeks before Election Day, Pugh talked to Harris and Trump supporters at the Harris rally in Savannah, Georgia, and learned that they were willing to do “whatever it took to ensure what they believed was the safety of the country — a second Trump presidency,” she said.
After conversations with friends and her father about safety, it quickly dawned on Pugh that she needed a plan to survive the upcoming presidency. She went to the gun range for the first time with her father, applied for a concealed carry license and took self-defense classes.
When Trump won the presidential election in 2016, Pugh was 16 and began to grapple with the state of America. In her hometown of Richmond Hill, a conservative area near Savannah, she dealt with classmates who rallied around Trump’s win. Eight years later, Pugh’s younger sister, who is turning 16 this year, faces many of the same challenges.
“The moment that brought me to tears was knowing that I finally had a chance to do something, and I did, but in the end, my little sibling is still going through what I had to go through at her age,” she said.
After the election, her feelings about politics remain complicated. While she would have loved to see a Black woman take office on Inauguration Day, she thinks the “will of the American people” sealed the fate of the next four years. That the inauguration falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day further illustrates the country’s reluctance to change for the better, Pugh said.
“The American people, in terms of politics, don’t have the vocabulary for what it is that they’re experiencing,” she said. “That comes from an unwillingness to research, to learn more, to be equipped to put language to what they’re experiencing. … I think this election is just a result of the American people continuously disempowering themselves.”
With the wildfires in Los Angeles, unusually snowy weather in the South and ongoing conflict in Gaza, Pugh said she finds it difficult to think about whether she’ll watch Monday’s inauguration.
Originally optimistic about the outcome of the election, Jamila Bell invited a few friends over on Election Night. As soon as she turned on her TV and saw that Harris was losing, the realization spoiled the mood.
Jamila Bell (Courtesy of Jamila Bell)Like Harris, Bell is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the first Divine Nine sorority dedicated to the advancement of Black women. Once Harris announced her plans to run for president, her sorors and members of other Black Greek Letter organizations rallied in support — they informed, mobilized and ensured their community members understood the importance of voting in the months leading up to the election.
Bell made plans with another AKA member who lived in D.C., and looked forward to celebrating the inauguration of the first Black female president. Now that Trump has won, Bell has decided not to watch the inauguration.
“I’m just trying to be as neutral as possible,” she said. “I’m not trying to have these angry reactions because I can’t change what’s going to happen. I want to stay aware of what’s going on and the policies that he’s trying to implement just to make sure I can do my due diligence. … I’m doing whatever I can for me and my people.”
Once the election results were finalized, Bell said that she and her loved ones felt exhausted. After putting in so much effort to mobilize their community, dealing with COVID over the past five years and seeing the destruction in Gaza and Israel, Bell felt that a lot of people were sad and didn’t know what to do next.
The coinciding of Trump’s inauguration and MLK Day reflects that the country has strayed away from the vision Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed for America, Bell said, but she believes things can change, so long as people go back to their roots and create tools that support their community.
“We still have that potential,” she said, “[but] are we going to use it?”
For members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. like Payne-Prescott, making it to Washington, for Inauguration Day was crucial. She booked rooms at two separate hotels “to be on the safe side.”
On Election Day, Payne-Prescott found that she was unable to tune into the results as she volunteered at the polls.
“It was a sad state of affairs that day,” she said. “My husband and I worked the polls and we were there all day so we weren’t watching the news. We were there from 5:30 a.m. to 9 o’clock at night.”
Traveling from New Jersey, Payne-Prescott had booked a train ticket to the nation’s capitol in anticipation of a historic Inauguration Day.
“The significance of the day itself being the day we honor and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with Dr. King being an Alpha Phi Alpha man and then the inauguration of soror and Vice President Kamala Harris. The first fraternity and first sorority. Wow, what a moment it would have been,” she said.
In the wake of the presidential election results, Payne-Prescott canceled all travel and lodging arrangements.
Four years ago on Inauguration Day, Regina Davis Moss turned the volume up in her home, car and office playing the song, “A Brand New Day” from the Broadway musical “The Wiz” in celebration of President Joe Biden’s victory and the historic moment of the first Black and Southeast Asian woman vice president, Harris.
This year, Davis Moss is planning a quieter day.
Regina David Moss(Courtesy of Regina Moss)As the president and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, a partnership of Black women-led reproductive justice organizations focused on policy change located in Washington, D.C., Davis Moss will be in the city but not at the United States Capitol. She has made plans to dine at a restaurant and share thoughts about what’s next for Black women and the reproductive justice agenda.
“I think this inauguration is going to look different in a lot of ways. I don’t suspect you’ll see the same turnout, in terms of Black women at the celebration, or women in general,” Davis Moss said.
“My job is focused on lifting up the voices of Black women and making sure that we’re in spaces that ensure our lives are safe and centered.”
Before Election Day, Davis Moss planned to attend the inauguration to support and celebrate Harris alongside thousands of other Black women.
“Songs like ‘JOY (Unspeakable)’ by Voices of Fire and Pharrell Williams come to mind when I envision what an Inauguration Day with Harris would have looked like. She was going to help carry the torch with us and help get us there,” Davis Moss said.
As a fellow alumna of Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C., daughter of California and a Black woman, Davis Moss said she resonates with the experiences of Harris and knows how often people underestimate Black women’s ability to do the job.
“We had believed that things were going to get better and we were going to be able to create and build better futures with her as president, not just for our kids and our families, but for everyone,” she said. “Despite all the attacks on our lives and our fundamental freedoms stripped — what she represented to me was hope.”
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