Dr. Raquel Hammonds

The Mountaintop We lift every voice and sing — The name of a Black Woman who stood at the mountaintop. With audacity that reflected off the glass ceilings that shattered when you spoke her name. Kamala Devi Harris. You stood. Standing in the spirit of Shirley Chisolm, Unbought, Unbossed and Undenying. You dreamed. The girl who would not be deferred and went on to write a letter to the world with a signature that now reads — It’s Possible. It’s Possible for a Black girl from Oakland, California, to see the mountaintop. And when she gets there to take the world off her shoulders and sit. Sitting in the resilience of Fannie Lou Hammer, you took the world by Storm. Never going Rouge and letting anyone take you out of character. You laughed. You filled rooms with hope and integrity and lit paths with perseverance. You opened. Doors that had been closed. You stepped — Over walls that had been built. You climbed. The Mount Everest of expectations with a smile that sat at the intersection of joy and justice. Because a country built in spite of you, you stood in spite of. You are the embodiment of what can be, unburdened by what has been. Rest in the knowing that you are ours. We thank you for the view from your moutaintop.