Historically Black sororities and fraternities are on the forefront of social justice.Vice President Kamala Harris made it clear: Howard University, one of the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, played a major role in shaping who she is. Her candidacy also propelled her sorority into the spotlight.Harris' Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters cheered her on during her run for vice president."Kamala Harris' success throughout her career really kind of spotlights the foundation of leadership building that the Divine Nine has done," said Edwin Johnson, a historian and special assistant to the provost at Morgan State University.Alpha Kappa Alpha is one of several historically Black sororities and fraternities called the Divine Nine, the organizations that fall under the national Pan-Hellenic Council."Most of them share the same theme or mission of service to community, scholarship and other positive attributes that you find common on college campuses," Johnson said.Johnson said that after slavery ended, Black people were looking toward the next phase of life. For many, that meant higher education. They found white campuses that accepted them, but still excluded them."So even in some of the more progressive institutions in the north, if you were a student of color, you might have found yourself welcomed to an institution, but you still might be sitting out in the hallway listening to the lecture from the doorway," Johnson said.The first historically Black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, was born in 1906 at Cornell University when the founders got together out of necessity.“At the time, Cornell did not allow people of color to live in the dorms. So, these young men were actually all living in a boarding house off campus. They were renting rooms, and from renting those rooms, they formed a friendship, and then, of course, out of that friendship, evolved the fraternity," Johnson said.The fraternities and sororities have been on the forefront of social justice, helping to secure the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote."Members of Delta Sigma Theta and other sororities were heavily present in that movement for getting the vote," Johnson said.The groups provided a network of support and a collective voice in the civil rights movement, past and present."Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Andrew Young, I mean, it's very difficult to look at many prominent figures from the first half of the 20th century that did not have some type of connection or tie to Divine Nine organizations," Johnson said.Being a historically Black fraternity and sorority does not mean that others from other races cannot join. "Absolutely not. They have been inclusive from their inception. The thing about Black Greek-lettered organizations is that they were about inclusion, they were about upbuilding the community and anyone who wanted to be part of that mission or that process was welcome to join," Johnson said.For all those groups, their civic works continue after college in communities across the country.