Vonda Pipkin ducked in and out of beauty supply shops all week, searching for pearls.
She bought hundreds and hundreds of 99-cent sets, enough to ensure that every girl at South Dallas’ Billy Earl Dade Middle School could wear a pearl necklace or bracelet or earrings as they watched a woman who looks like them be sworn in as vice president.
Women across the country donned pearls and Chucks — elements of Kamala Harris’ signature looks — to commemorate her historic rise. At Dade, teachers and administrators said it was essential to make the day special for the girls in their care.
“Pearls for the girls!” Pipkin, the school’s culture coordinator, chanted as she pushed a cart overflowing with necklaces. “Pearls for the girls!”
Some of the most enduring images of Harris feature her in pearls, a gemstone that’s a symbol of her sorority.
She wore a single strand when she graduated from Howard University, a historically Black university. She wore a double strand when she accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president. Pearls hung around her neck when she debated Mike Pence and shut down his interruptions with the line: “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.”
And on Wednesday — as she became Madam Vice President — she once again wore pearls.
Dade Principal Rockell Stewart said her students are aware of what’s been happening around the country. They watched on TV as a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago and feel the enduring pain of the coronavirus pandemic.
She wanted Wednesday to represent a shift: a joyous celebration of change and a new sense of representation for her students, most of whom are Black or Hispanic. Harris is the first woman of color and first woman of South Asian descent to be elected vice president.
“Women can do more than what they used to do,” seventh-grader Shanna Austin said.
Stewart and many of her fellow administrators also wore Converse All-Stars to school on Inauguration Day, a nod to the Chucks that Harris sported on the campaign trail — and on the latest cover of Vogue.
Her outfit for the inauguration ceremony, in which she wore pearls and purple, was seen as a tribute to women’s suffrage and Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress.
If not for COVID-19 and the recent security lockdowns, thousands of women would have traveled to the nation’s capital to witness Harris’ swearing-in as the first woman vice president. Instead, people joined massive Facebook groups as a way to celebrate virtually. More than 94,000 people were members of a “Chucks and Pearls Day” private group. In a “Wear Pearls on Jan 20th, 2021” group, 450,000 posted photos of themselves and their daughters, mothers and grandmothers.
Several teachers at Dade are members of the Divine Nine, a group of historically Black sororities and fraternities. The ladies wore their Greek colors and pins Wednesday in another nod to Harris, who often talks about her Alpha Kappa Alpha sisterhood. Harris’ signature gemstone is also a symbol of the AKA sorority, which refers to its founders as the “Twenty Pearls.”
The school called students’ homes to tell parents about Chucks & Pearls Day — and to let them know that classes would be streaming the historic inauguration ceremony.
As Shanna got ready for school Wednesday morning, her granny called her over.
“This is the day,” 70-year-old MaryAnn Davis said.
On such a historic day, Davis wanted her granddaughter to wear a necklace that had been passed down, generation to generation, in their family. Wednesday was the first time 12-year-old Shanna got to wear the pearls.
“It’s important to receive them on this day and let her know all things are possible, that she can be whatever she wants to be,” Davis said.
While Shanna watched the inauguration at school, Davis was at home. She had on pearls, too.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
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