Vice President of USA – Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris created history for the first time on January 20, 2021 when she was sworn in as Joe Biden’s Vice President, becoming the first woman, the first Black American and the first Asian American to hold the second-highest U.S. office.
Kamala Devi Harris is an American politician and attorney who became Vice President of the United States. Harris served as a United States Senator from California from 2017 to 2021, and as Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017.
Kamala Harris’ motto comes from her mother:
“You may be the first, but make sure you’re not the last.”
Harris used two Bibles to be sworn in on Jan. 20, USA TODAY reported. One Bible belonged to the late Civil Rights icon and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who helped inspire her career path. The second Bible belonged to family friend Regina Shelton, whom Harris called a “second mother” to her and her sister. Source Madeline Ngo USA Today
“Mrs. Shelton would bring her Bible to church every Sunday. Sitting alongside her, I was introduced to the teachings of that Bible,” Harris wrote in a Bustle article in 2019.
Growing up with a Christian father and a Hindu mother, Harris attended services at both a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple. Harris celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah with her husband, Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, USA TODAY reported.
Born in Oakland, California on 20th October 1964, Kamala Harris is the eldest of two children born to Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian cancer researcher whose work on the gene for the progesterone receptor inspired advances in research in breast cancer, and Donald Harris, a Jamaican economist who had met each other while pursuing graduate degrees at UC Berkeley and had bonded over a mutual interest for the civil rights movement that was prominent on campus.
Even before the formal education of Kamala Harris begun, her parents used to take her along to rallies in a stroller after she was born. In Sanskrit, the name Kamala means “lotus” and it is also another term for Goddess Lakshmi who is known as the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Harris’ mother chose this name for her as a tribute to her Indian ancestry. As a girl, Harris, upheld both her South Asian and Jamaican identities by going to both a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple. Harris later went on to write in her autobiography, “My mother knew very well that she was raising two black daughters, and she was determined to ensure that we would evolve into confident, proud black women.” by Team Leverage Edu
Kamala Harris Education
Harris studied at Howard University, the prestigious Black College in Washington, D.C., after high school. The undergraduate years in the education of Kamala Harris concluded as she graduated with a degree in Political Science and Economics.
She headed back to California availing the Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP) to get admission into the University of California, Hastings College of Law. She was also the president of her division in the campus of the Black Law Students Association while still at UC Hastings. In 1989, she earned a Juris Doctor degree and was accredited to the California Bar in June 1990. The education of Kamala Harris, especially in the field of Political Science and Law, helped her emerge as a leading voice on racial inequality and justice.
In 2013, Harris, then Attorney General of California, and Doug Emhoff, a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer, were set up on a blind date by Harris’ friend, Chrisette Hudlin.
Marie Claire also reports that the morning after their first date, he emailed Harris: “I really like you.” After nearly a year of dating, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that they were engaged on March 27, 2014. The proposal was intimate and low key, with Doug getting down on one knee at Harris’s California apartment and presenting her with a diamond and platinum engagement ring.
The couple were married August 2014. Doug Emhoff has two children from a previous marriage.
Doug Emhoff wrote in a birthday message to his wife in 2020, “Blind date, love at first sight, marriage, family, and an incredible life together. Through it all, no matter what, she is ALWAYS there for me and our family without hesitation.” – Andrea Wurzburger
