Women of Asian Pacific Islander month: Kamala Harris

By: Alexsia Williams

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris speaks at L.A.’s Families Belong Together March in June 2018. 30 June 2018, by: Luke Harold via Wikimedia Commons

Kamala Harris who was born to Shyamala and Donald Harris, was born on October 20th, 1964, in Oakland, California. In her early childhood years Harris attended Thousand Oaks Elementary School, in Berkeley’s public school system. Alongside attending school, Harris also attended both a Black Baptist church and Hindu temple, to honor her biracial heritage.

In her teenage years, Harris attended Westmount High school In Montreal, Canada, which was 60% percent white and 40% percent Black at the time. Although she initially struggled with the language barrier at the French speaking school because she spoke no French, her peers and friends during that time described her as “very smart” and “eloquent.”

After high school, Harris majored in political science and economics at Howard University in Washington D.C. During her time at Howard, she chaired the economic society, led the debate team, and was a member of a sorority.

After attending Howard, she returned to California to attend law school to earn her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989, where she served as the president of the Black Law Students Association.

After passing the bar exam in 1990, Harris began her career as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County to focus on prosecuting child sexual assault cases. Not long after, she moved to the San Francisco district attorney’s office, where she ran the carrier criminal unit.

Today, I spoke by phone with @WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. We discussed how the United States will work as a constructive partner to strengthen and reform the WHO—which will be a vital step to controlling COVID-19. 21 January 2021 by: The White House via Wikimedia Commons

Moving forward in later years, Harris served as the 49th vice president, alongside president Joe Biden through 2021 to 2025. With president Biden withdrawing from the race in July 2024, Harris became the democratic nominee for president but ultimately was defeated in the general election by Donald Trump.

Although not winning the 2025 election, Harris is recognized for being the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to hold the vice presidency. She continues to still advocate and be a leading voice for abortion rights, gun violence prevention and many other policies.