Ahead of being sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris reflected on the legacy of her mother, who emigrated from India, and the hard work of generations of women to achieve equal rights.
She tweeted a video, replaying the speech she made just after she was elected as the country’s vice president.
Speaking of her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, to who she attributed her success, she said:
“When she came here from India at the age of 19, she maybe didn’t quite imagine this moment.”Kamala Harris, US VP-Elect
"I am thinking about her, and about the generations of women – Black women, Asian, White, Latina, Native American women – who throughout our nation's history have paved the way for this moment tonight," Harris said.
“Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality, liberty and justice for all. Including, the black women who are often, too often, overlooked but so often proved they are the backbone of our democracy. All the women who have worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century – 100 years ago with the 19th Amendment, 55 years ago with Voting Rights Act.”Kamala Harris, US VP-Elect
Scripting History
Harris was born in Oakland in 1964 to an Indian mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a breast cancer scientist, and a Jamaican father, Donald Harris, an economics professor at Stanford University.
Her sister, Maya Harris, was one of three senior policy advisers who were appointed to lead the development of an agenda for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
In 1998, after graduating from Brown University and getting her law degree from the University of California, Harris joined the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, where she was made in-charge of the Career Criminal Unit.
In 2003, she was selected as the district attorney of the city and county of San Francisco.
With this election victory in 2020, Harris becomes the nation’s first Black and South Asian vice president, as well as the first woman to hold that office.
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