Zahara Jolie-Pitt joins Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in Spelman. Here’s why this is important

CNN
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There was a lot of excitement last year when Zahara Jolie-Pitt enrolled at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Videos of her and her mother, Angelina Jolie, visiting campus went viral and sparked discussion about the importance of historically black colleges and universities.

Now the 18-year-old daughter of Jolie and Brad Pitt has pledged to create her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Incorporated, and it’s once again sparking excitement and conversation.

Al-Jawhar Magazine Video shared on social media It showed a crowd of people on campus reacting excitedly when Jolie-Pitt introduced herself and shared that she was number seven among her pledge sisters.

Alpha Kappa Alpha, Incorporated is the oldest Greek letter sorority founded by college-educated Black women and has more than 355,000 initiated members in undergraduate and graduate chapters around the world. It was founded in 1908 at Howard University and is the subject of the documentary “Twenty Pearls.”

The organization also has many high-profile members, including the current Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.

Many members point with pride to being part of the Divine Nine, a group of sororities and fraternities founded in the early 1900s during a time when racism and discrimination against black Americans was rife.

Jolie-Pitt’s “border crossing,” as it is referred to once a person becomes a member of a black sorority or fraternity, is noteworthy for those who have noted Jolie-Pitt’s connections to her cultural roots.

She was born in Ethiopia and was adopted by Jolie and Pitt in 2005. When it comes to interracial adoptions where children of color are adopted by white parents, there are those who express concerns that these parents may not be sensitive to what it is like to live. In a world that considers you a minority.

This was the case in 2009, when there was controversy over Jolie allowing her daughter to style her hair, as Newsweek’s Alison Samuels referred to as “wild and unstyled, uncombed and dry.” Basically: “total chaos.”

“Now, I’m not going to jump into the middle of the raucous debate that’s sweeping the Internet like wildfire; there’s been enough pile-up on both sides without me adding to it ‘Should Zahra’s hair be wild and carefree?'” – author and journalist Deneen Milner she wrote on her My Brown Baby website. “Should Angie take a black hair care class or two so she can ‘tame’ Zahra’s hair? Why would we criticize a 4 year old’s hairstyle anyway?)

“But I will say that even as an African-American mother, it is not easy to be responsible for two heads of curly hair — not including my own — with little information, great fear, and horrific memories of being tortured on Saturday night.” she added.

So when Jolie came to Spelman in 2022 with her daughter, there was celebration that Jolie-Pitt would become part of the famed liberal arts college for women. The actress fully accepted the choice, and was even photographed during a campus visit Get a lesson in how to do an electric slide.

This joy was repeated and amplified with the news that Jolie-Pitt had committed to her.

“I felt like I had crossed my cuz or my niece,” former “Amazing Race” contestant and influencer Kerry Paul commented on social media.

CNN’s Chandelis Duster and Nickel Terry Ellis contributed to this report