1964-present
Birthplace: Oakland, California
District Attorney, San Francisco, California
Attorney General, State Of California.
United States Senator - California
Author
49th Vice President - United States of America
Vice President Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California to immigrant parents. Her father came from Jamaica and her mother from India. Her parents exposed her to activism and civil rights demonstrations early on. When Harris was introduced to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the Honorable Constance Baker Motley, the first African American woman to be appointed federal judge, she knew she wanted to become a prosecutor.
Harris graduated from Howard University and University of California Hastings College of Law.
In 1990 she joined the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office specializing in prosecuting child sexual assault cases. She moved to managing attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and then chief of the Division of Children and Families for the San Francisco Attorney’s Office.
Harris was elected District Attorney of San Francisco in 2003, becoming the first woman to hold that position.
Seven years later, Harris was elected California’s Attorney General and oversaw the largest state justice department in the US. She did this as the first African American woman and South Asian American woman to hold the office.
In 2017 she became United States Senator Kamala Harris representing California.
On August 11, 2020 Harris accepted President Joe Biden’s invitation to become his running mate. She is the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected Vice President.
Vice President Harris is the author of several books: Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer.
In 2019 The Truths We Hold: An American Journey about her career highlights and personal philosophy, along with an illustrated children’s book Superheroes Are Everywhere .
Vice President Kamala Harris shattered the glass ceiling for women. A closer study of the above image and you will note that Harris would have been enslaved under Vice President Andrew Johnson’s regime. (red) She would not have had the right to vote under Vice President Calvin Coolidge. (blue) She would have endured segregation under Vice President Richard Nixon (yellow) and could not have had her own bank account under Vice President Spiro Agnew. (green)
A hat tip to Vice President Kamala Harris. Her example inspired me to needle felt her likeness. The fact that a woman REGARDLESS of political affiliation was being sworn in to the second highest position in the USA was going to happen with very little celebration was very sad to me as a woman. I spent three days and nights creating her. I was felting simple little black shoes on her feet as she was being sworn in so I could post her on Inauguration Day January 20, 2021.
I choose the black pearl necklace Harris is wearing to honor her mother. Harder than white pearls, black pearls signal the “fighting spirit” the Vice President credited to her mother. The history of how they won esteem despite centuries of bias favoring white pearls is a trajectory shared by women — especially those of color — who aspire to high political office. Her blue suite is made of pre felt fabric, as pictured below.
Her hair is made of alpaca, including highlights which I source from the Alpaca farm: Alpacas of the Heartland LLC in Fort Calhoun, NE.
“What I want young women and girls to know is: You are powerful and your voice matters. You’re going to walk into many rooms in your life and career where you may be the only one who looks like you or who has had the experiences you’ve had. But you remember that when you are in those rooms, you are not alone. We are all in that room with you applauding you on. Cheering your voice. And just so proud of you. So you use that voice and be strong.” – Kamala Harris
Sources:
The White House.gov
senate.gov
nationalwomenshistory.org
Encyclopedia Britannica
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