“I’m standing behind a Black woman to be president of the United States, and it doesn’t make me any less of a Black man,” said the Illinois attorney general. “I’m asking all of you all to do the same.”
A day after Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she intended to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, more than 40,000 Black men from across the country convened on a virtual fund-raising call to discuss what the moment required of them.
For four hours, one Black man after another — prominent politicians, activists, entertainers — laid out the challenges ahead for Ms. Harris, including the racist and sexist attacks they expected from her opponents. In pledging their support, many offered emotional testimonies about the personal relationships they have built with her.
But it was not long before the men confronted the elephant in the room.
“Sometimes as Black men we get confused as to what strength is, and sometimes we think that standing behind a Black woman as a leader does not display strength as Black men,” said Kwame Raoul, the attorney general of Illinois. “I’m here to tell you all tonight that it does the opposite of that, it displays strength.”
Mr. Raoul then drove home his point. “I’m standing behind a Black woman to be president of the United States, and it doesn’t make me any less of a Black man,” he said. “I’m asking all of you all to do the same.”
The call, one in a series the Harris campaign has held in recent weeks with Black women, white women and white “dudes,” was a rallying cry to a part of a crucial Democratic constituency seen as skeptical of Ms. Harris.
While Black men have been reliable voters for Democrats for decades, Mr. Raoul was touching on an uncomfortable truth: A small but significant slice of Black men have historically been hesitant to support Black women seeking the highest positions of power. The numbers are on the margins but could be crucial to carrying Ms. Harris to victory in November.
Dr. Moya Bailey, a Northwestern University professor who coined the term “misogynoir” to describe racist misogyny, said in an interview that while patriarchy is not unique to the Black population, “the consequences are much higher.” Scholars note that a demographic group that is conservative on many social issues has historically equated leadership with masculinity, borne out in the dearth of Black female leaders in the church, business and elected office.
When Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, announced her intent to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, she faced pushback from Black male colleagues who felt she should have sought their approval. “Black male politicians are no different from white male politicians,” Ms. Chisholm said at the time. “This ‘woman thing’ is so deep.”
Nearly a half-century later, Stacey Abrams organized “Stacey and the Fellas” gatherings during her failed 2022 run for governor of Georgia because of concerns that her support among Black men was tepid. “If Black men vote for me, I will win Georgia,” she called out to them at one event.
Ms. Harris has her own challenges after decades in law enforcement, when she built a “top cop” persona associated with the incarceration of Black men, and became a proxy for a Democratic establishment that has increasingly left Black men disillusioned.
Polls from The New York Times and Siena College last year found that Black voters, and particularly Black men, were more disconnected from the Democratic Party than they have been in decades, frustrated with what many saw as inaction on their political priorities. In the 2020 election, 12 percent of Black men said they had voted for President Donald J. Trump compared with 6 percent of Black women, according to an Associated Press survey.
Ms. Harris’s campaign advisers acknowledge that the Black men drawn to Mr. Trump see him as a projection of strength, and that the former president is banking on their support once again.
“I seem to be doing very well with Black males,’’ Mr. Trump said in a news conference at Mar-a-Lago last week.
But historians, academics and Black male leaders say that Ms. Harris’s ascent may signal a change. Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, who was on the call with the Black men, urged them not to “flinch” in supporting Ms. Harris.
“It is very evident that there are forces that want a rematch on the Civil War,” Mr. Johnson said. “They made it very clear a season ago. They are playing for keeps. The best moment that we have to secure our democracy, and protect the progress that we’ve made as a people, is to put our arms around this sister.”
Black male leaders rallying support for Ms. Harris said Mr. Trump only helped their effort during an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists. Facing a panel of three Black women reporters, Mr. Trump falsely said that Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian and whose father is Jamaican, had only recently decided to identify as Black for political purposes. He also proclaimed himself “the best president for the Black population” since Abraham Lincoln.
Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League, said such moments would make it harder for Black men to explain to other Black people why they would vote for Mr. Trump over Ms. Harris.
“An African American male has to talk in the community to African American women about why he would pick Trump over an African American woman,” Mr. Morial said in an interview, adding that “my mama would run me out the house,” if he said he was going to vote for Mr. Trump.
Ms. Harris will still face a significant challenge in motivating Black men to go to the polls, said W. Mondale Robinson, the mayor of Enfield, N.C., and the founder of the nonprofit Black Male Voter Project.
Ms. Harris is “not a trusted messenger for Black men,” he said. Mr. Robinson spoke on the call rallying support for Ms. Harris but said the callers did not represent the views of all Black men in the United States, including the many who have lost faith in the system.
“Everything she says will be looked at with a side eye from Black men because there’s a lack of trust in politicians coming for you in election years, saying they’re going to do something and then they didn’t deliver on it,” Mr. Robinson said.
For more than a year, Ms. Harris has paid close attention to signs of erosion among Black voters — and specifically men — from the Democratic Party. She has invited Black male business leaders and heads of grass-roots organizations to her official residence to hear their concerns. She has held events around the country to make the case for how the Biden administration’s domestic policies can help Black male voters.
In early 2023, the N.A.A.C.P. helped Ms. Harris organize a meeting of about 60 Black men at the White House.
Dominik Whitehead, the N.A.A.C.P. national vice president of campaigns, said that the men who attended were wary about her background as a prosecutor, and that he thought the meeting would feel “transactional,” merely a photo opportunity.
“There had been some neglect toward Black men and their issues,” Mr. Whitehead said. “I think there were some hard truths they needed to hear, but they were open to hearing that.”
By the end, the men had engaged with Ms. Harris on an array of topics, including their economic mobility in the job market. Before she left the room, Mr. Whitehead said, Ms. Harris told the group, “I see you. We see you. And we know this has not been easy.”
Mr. Trump and his allies have made the push for Black men by marketing gold sneakers to them, campaigning with rappers and claiming without evidence that those who cross the border are taking “Black jobs.” Mr. Trump’s surrogates have held listening sessions in a cigar bar in Philadelphia while contending that the Democratic Party has abandoned Black voters.
Mr. Trump has gone so far to say that Black men would vote for him because they could relate to his recent convictions — a claim Ms. Harris has called “insulting.” She has also said she has work to do to earn their votes.
“There is a trope in this election which I take issue with, because the underlying premise suggests that Black men should be in the back pocket of Democrats,” Ms. Harris said in an interview with The Nation magazine last month. “And that is absolutely unacceptable. Here’s why: Why would any one demographic of people be different from any other demographic? They all expect you to earn their vote! You’ve got to make your case.”
Earlier this year, Ms. Harris invited groups of Black male leaders to her official residence at the Naval Observatory for a series of meetings about the needs of their communities. One dinner was described on the formal menu card as a “celebration of Black excellence honoring extraordinary men.”
At that event, the men told her she had to make the case that the Biden administration’s policies had benefited Black communities, not just by naming legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, but by describing its impact, including lowering the cost of insulin for Black families.
In May, during a stop in Milwaukee on what she billed as an economic opportunity tour, Ms. Harris cited a Black construction business owner by name, highlighted the growth in the number of his employees and made her case. “When the president and I came in, we said we are going to increase by 50 percent federal contracts going to minority-owned businesses, and we are on track to get that done by the end of next year,” she said. A moment later she added, “Look, who’s in the position of power matters.’’
What matters to Jason Nichols, senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park, is the change he sees occurring this year. While Black men may not see as much of themselves in Ms. Harris as they did in former President Barack Obama, Mr. Nichols said they can see themselves in the progress she represents.
“You see the community coming together to vote their best interest — which, in this case, is a Black woman,” he said. “I think this time Black men understand the assignment.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Erica L. Green