Kamala Harris: The First of Many
Dressed in a purple coat and ensemble and with pearls around her neck, Kamala Harris stood beside the podium with her right hand on the Bible. A smile was pressed onto her lips as she waited to repeat the phrases of her oath of office as the newly elected vice president of the United States. She was both the first woman and Black woman to stand in that position. Born in Oakland, California to parents who emigrated from India and Jamaica, Harris grew up in the environ- ment of advocacy. Her parents were justice advocates and often brought her to demonstrations during the Civ- il Rights Movement. At a young age, she was introduced to activists like Constance Baker, Charles Hamilton Houston and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. She has said these individuals were role models whose work furthered her interest in attending law school. She boasts educational accomplishments and graduated from Howard University and the University of California’s Hastings College of Law. Once in her career, Harris became the first Black woman to serve as the district attorney for the county of San Francisco. In 2017, she was elected to the Senate and was only the second Black woman to serve in that position. Through her work, Harris has backed and sponsored legislation supporting criminal justice reform, an- ti-lynching and policies benefitting women and young girls. In her first speech as vice president-elect in No- vember 2020, she said she hopes to inspire and encourage other women across the country to shatter the barriers surrounding them in school, work and politics. “While I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.” During her initial campaign, Harris became one of only 11 Black women in the history of the United States to run for president. Though none of them won their
political races, the representation and historic events of their campaigns often encouraged minority voter registration and created valuable points of inspiration and progress for women and African Americans. Harris tailored her running points to Black Americans and con- sistently underlined her Jamaican and Indian roots.
“We did it, Joe. We did it.”
When she accepted Joe Biden’s request to join his campaign as vice president, she further opened a path that had been previously uncharted for minority groups across the country. “We did it, Joe. We did it,” she said after learning of their victory. While the iconic words signaled the end to efforts to win the election, they were a celebration of progress for the women, Black Ameri- cans and other minority groups who later watched the reaction. All throughout her campaign and the election, Kama- la Harris’ first name was often mispronounced, raising questions of how to enunciate the syllables containing the Indian meaning of “lotus flower.” Many Black men and women could identify with having names over which native English tongues would stutter. Hearing her name spoken correctly, however, in front of an audi- ence of the country’s top politicians and to the ears of millions of Americans on inauguration day solidified the tone of representation and respect Harris, her role models and activist predecessors have advocated for.
My mother would look at me, and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last. That’s why breaking those barriers is worth it. As much as anything else, it is also to create that path for those who will come after us. - Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States “ ”
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