Following the crucial US presidential election this year, here’s a closer look into the life and career of the United States’ first woman vice president
Kamala Devi Harris, also known as the “female Obama,” made history on Saturday with her election as the US vice president. Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, became the first woman, first Black woman, and the first person of South Asian descent to be elected vice president, adding several firsts to her name. Outspoken against Donald Trump and his handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Harris has been known to shatter glass ceilings in her life. The US Vice President-elect has spent her life notching up a long list of firsts: the first Black woman to be elected district attorney in California history, the first woman to be California’s attorney general, first Indian American senator, and now, the first Black woman and Indian-American vice president of the United States. In 2016, the 56-year-old leader became the second black woman to serve in the US senate. Following the crucial US presidential election this year, here’s a closer look into the life and career of Harris: Born on October 20,1964, in Oakland, California, Harris’ father and mother emigrated from Jamaica and India, respectively. Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan was a cancer researcher from India, and her father Donald Harris was an economist from Jamaica. Harris got married to Doug Emhoff, a corporate lawyer in Los Angeles, in 2014 at a private ceremony officiated by her sister Maya. Emhoff has two children from his previous marriage and they call Harris ‘Momala’. Gopalan, Harris’ mother, emigrated from Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. In all her recent speeches, Harris has been vocal about her roots and has also spoken about how she used to visit her maternal home in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, to spend summers with her grandfather who worked as a civil servant in the Government of India. Harris and her sister Maya, who is also a political activist and has worked for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, were raised by their mother as their parents separated when Harris was just seven-year-old. Their mother passed away in 2009. Harris went to both a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple as a child, embracing both her South Asian and Black identities.
