This column first appeared in The Amendment, a biweekly newsletter by Errin Haines, The 19th’s editor-at-large. Subscribe today to get early access to future Election 2024 analysis.
For every day that I have thought or written about the history-making candidacy of Kamala Harris, who is poised to become the first woman of color to be the Democratic nominee for president, I have wept for Sonya Massey, the 36-year-old Black woman killed earlier this month by a White sheriff’s deputy in Illinois.
As Harris’ campaign launched last week to excitement among Democratic voters across the country, Massey’s case gained more attention after footage of her fatal shooting was released. The duality of these events was a reminder of what it means to be a Black woman in 2024, to consider the consequences for us in the most consequential election of our lifetimes.
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As editor-at-large for The 19th, I write a lot about Black women, but I’m not always speaking directly to us. But this felt like an important moment for us to hold space for each other, and I wanted to hear from Black women attending Harris’ rally in Atlanta to see if Massey was also on their minds, too.
For Ave Montgomery, Harris’ rise and Massey’s tragic shooting were connected, giving her a sense of urgency to elect Harris in November.
“We’ve got to make it happen, because if not, things are going to get worse,” said Montgomery, 65, from Lithonia, Georgia.
Her sorority sister, Jocelyn Stargel, was with her at the rally. Stargel hadn’t thought about Harris and Massey simultaneously until I’d asked her about it, but explained that was likely because of how normalized police killings have become for Black Americans.
“Every week, there’s another Sonya Massey,” said Stargel, 63. “It is, but it doesn’t need to be. That’s why I’m here.”
My time at The 19th has been bookended by the dual realities of Black excellence and Black tragedy.
In 2020, as I was covering the veepstakes that made Harris the first woman of color nominee and first woman vice president, I also wrote the first national story about the killing of Breonna Taylor by a Louisville, Kentucky, police officer. It was a moment that also felt dissonant.
Now another Black woman is dead and will not get to vote in November.
The Black women at Harris’ Atlanta rally are holding the dissonance and using the emotions of the moment to motivate them to organize, volunteer and vote in 97 days.
“Unfortunately, it is more of the same of what we experienced headed into the last election, in terms of the continued erasure, silencing of, and assault of Black women at large,” Danielle Rose, 48, of Atlanta, told me. “The value of our lives, our contributions, continue to be minimized.”
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Still, she said when she learned of Harris’ entry into the 2024 presidential contest at the top of the ticket, she “had to sit in it for a while.”
“I felt like we were back in the game,” Rose said. “I had disassociated, with everything happening with [Donald] Trump. Frankly, I’d lost hope.”
Rose, an Oakland, California, native, was among the 44,000 Black women showing her support on Zoom on July 21, just hours after Harris declared her candidacy. On Tuesday, she wore a Spelman College sweater representing her undergraduate alma mater to the rally, happy for the chance to show her excitement in person.
“This is the opportunity to really, yet again, prove the incredible value and power of Black women, in terms of rallying around the vice president right now,” Rose said.
She paused, then added: “We get to show up, for Sonya, and Breonna … the list goes on.”
The moment may feel similar, but there has also been progress in the last four years.
Instead of being in the No. 2 spot, Harris — who has supported police reform as a senator and vice president — is at the top of the ticket. While racist and misogynist attacks on Harris are ongoing, the media and many voters are more prepared this time to condemn them.
Taylor’s case took nearly two months to make national headlines, and while Massey’s case was also not immediately national news, less time passed before the rest of the country learned about what happened to her. The officer in Massey’s case was also charged more quickly, something that does not always happen in such killings. Now, as then, there was national outrage that led to protests. And Massey’s death could similarly galvanize Black voters over the next four months.
Though I wish we had not had to cover their deaths, I am proud that at The 19th, we have said the names of Taylor and Massey. In doing so, we honor their memory, speak truth to power and bear witness to injustice.
