This article was written for The Pursuit, Southern Miss' School of Communication magazine. Unfortunately, it is now defunct.
Imani Harris never imagined that she would find her identity as a black woman, be the founder of two clubs, a Southern Style and Golden Eagle Welcome Week leader or the 2018 Miss Southern Miss when she arrived to the campus in 2015. In fact, the senior public relations major from Petal, Mississippi, intended on embarking on a different career path entirely away from Southern Miss.
Having been involved in the Petal High School show choir, Harris says she was meant to be a performer and planned on applying to out-of-state universities. However, her plans changed when she visited Southern Miss as a high school senior.
“I wanted to be a performer, and I believed I had to move far away to do so,” Harris said. “An advisor of mine started talking Southern Miss up to me and arranged for several of my friends and I to go on tours and attend events at USM. When visiting, I felt wanted. I felt like there was a place for me at this university, and a lot of my friends were already choosing to come here as well.”
Although Harris was comfortable because she was surrounded by friends, socially and culturally the university did not feel like home yet.
Harris began exploring her identity as a black woman at Southern Miss by minoring in black studies during her sophomore year.
At the time Harris came to Southern Miss, African Americans comprised 30 percent of enrollment, according to the Office of Institutional Research.
Inspired by what she was learning in her classes and her heavy involvement in clubs during her freshman year, Harris said she wanted to be a resource to other black students at Southern Miss by being a leader.
“During my first year and a half at Southern Miss, I joined a lot of organizations because that’s what I thought I needed to do to be seen and heard at this university,” Harris said. “Eventually it became something that I just loved. Involvement became a way for me to decide what leading means to me and to become that.”
Although Harris’ intentions were to amplify her own voice and find her identity as a black woman by joining clubs, she later realized that being a leader was providing much needed representation for other black students.
Being a GEWW, Southern Style and Eagle Connection leader allowed for Harris to think about what it meant to be a black student and share her experiences.
“Although I had lots of guidance during my time with choosing a college, no one prepared me for what it was going to be like being a black woman at USM,” Harris said. “I joined organizations like GEWW, Southern Style and Eagle Connection, so I could give black students a chance to see what they could be here. I wanted to be a resource where they could ask real questions about what it means to be black at Southern Miss. I wanted them to see me and to know that everything I’m doing, they could do. Southern Miss is a melting pot of people and gives every student the space to be who they want to be, and I wanted to be one of the leaders helping students know and understand that,” Harris said.
Senior public health major Anastasia Walrod has known Harris since their freshman year when they served in the Student Government Association’s Freshman Associates together. However, the two became best friends through Southern Style during the summer of 2018. Through Southern Style field trips to civil rights museums in Jackson and Montgomery and dinner dates to O’Charley’s, they were able to bond and discover they had similar values.
Prior to this, Walrod had admired Harris from afar, viewing Harris as “this perfect leader who was passionate in her advocacy, writing, and beliefs.” She said Harris’ vulnerability and honesty made her a great leader.
“After truly befriending Imani, I realized that her ‘imperfections’ made her an even better role model to our community and to me,” Walrod said. “I gained so much respect in seeing her own her insecurities while encouraging me to claim aspects of my identity I had felt insecure about. We challenge each other, we love each other, and we support each other through everything senior year throws at us.”
Harris eventually became the president of the African American Student Organization. Founded in 1969, AASO is the oldest and largest black organization on campus. Harris said she wanted to be surrounded by a community who looked like her.
Harris took that a step further by founding her own organization on campus, Queens Uplifted, with her public relations advisor Loren Coleman, Ph.D., and Southern Miss graduates Maya Rex and Kahdijah Ross in 2017.
According to the Queens Uplifted mission statement, Queens Uplifted is a club that “facilitates mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual development among black women by fostering inclusive environments. The organization is dedicated to exploring womanhood and the intersections at which black women exist.”
Harris said that while there were other organizations catered toward black students, she thought black women needed their own space.
“We didn’t have an organization or a space that specifically targeted us and gave us room to discover ourselves in a safe space,” Harris said. “We have black sororities, we have orgs that focus on professional or career development, we have community services orgs, but we didn’t have a space that specifically focused on community, identity, and self-discovery. I desperately needed that space and I figured if I did, someone else did as well.”
Coleman said Harris’ work is inspiring.
“I saw myself in them [the founders] as an undergrad student, and a part of the reason of why I went and got a Ph.D. was to be able to be a resource to young, black women on campus. When I was in undergrad, I didn’t have that,” Coleman said.
“I would identify her as a servant leader. The reason why is the foresight and the vision that she has not just for herself but for her community, and when I say her community it’s not just black women. In Queens Uplifted, although it is a safe space built and for black women, Imani has been able to build a community at this university that is inclusive, that is accepting, that is diverse, and that is inspiring for her to be a senior in college to be able to understand difference and appreciate difference,” she said.
During the end of her junior year, Harris wrote a letter to herself with a list of goals she wanted to accomplish within the next year. One of those goals was being Miss Southern Miss.
She informed Walrod of this goal before applying for the title and expressed doubts about her chances of winning. Harris said she believed that a set of Greek letters stood between her and the title. Because Harris was not in a sorority, she believed that her peers would think she was not worthy. They thought the opposite.
Walrod was one of the people who reminded Harris of the impact she had had on the Southern Miss community before and during elections.
“Miss Southern Miss is a volunteer position meaning she must help orchestrate at least one community service event while serving the Southern Miss community,” Walrod said. “Who better to serve in this role than the woman who has created a safe place for Black women at USM? Who consistently builds relationships with new students and so many others in our community? Who embraces her flaws while embracing her leadership potential? Who lives out the USM Creed daily? Who values other people’s stories? Seeing all these qualities and accomplishments she possessed while acknowledging how much she would regret it if she chose not to campaign allowed me to encourage her to pursue her dream while standing by her side if she chose not to.”
Inspired by her own path of self-discovery, Harris used her “Find Your Voice” campaign during homecoming elections to highlight more than 20 students and their Southern Miss journeys on social media.
When the Student Government Association election commissioner announced on the steps of the SGA office that Harris had won the title, Harris said she was overwhelmed and excited to represent the school that has given her so much.
On Saturday, Oct. 21, Harris locked arms with Mr. Southern Miss Jonathan Brent. She said she walked down the football field more in love with the Southern Miss community than ever before.
“Seeing a promise from God manifest right in front of my eyes brings me to tears,” Harris said. “I found my voice here. I found my voice here. I found my purpose here. I found myself here. It is my hope that other students hear my story and are inspired to do the same.”
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