Kamala Harris pays tribute to mother, Black women in first speech as VP-elect

Speaking for the first time as vice president-elect, Kamala Harris paid tribute to her mother and to “Black women who are often — too often — overlooked, but who so often prove they are the backbone of our democracy.”

In her speech Saturday she said she was thinking of her mother Shyamala Gopalan, who passed away in 2009 and who Harris considers the most important influence in her life.

“When she came here from India at the age of 19 she maybe didn’t imagine this moment, but she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible. So 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,” Harris said.

Harris was born in 1964 to two parents active in the civil rights movement. Her mother and her father, Donald Harris, who is from Jamaica, met at the University of California, Berkeley, then a hotbed of activism. They divorced when Harris and her sister were girls, and Harris was raised by her mother. Harris’ mother raised her daughters with the understanding the world would see them as Black women, Harris has said, and that is how she describes herself today.

Harris noted that it has been 100 years since the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution granted women the right to vote. However, vast numbers of non-white women remained disenfranchised by racist voting laws and policies until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, just 55 years ago.

“Now in 2020, there is a new generation of women in our country who cast their ballots, and continued their fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard. Tonight I reflect on their struggle, their determination, and the strength of their vision — to see what can be, unburdened by what has been — and I stand on their shoulders.”

Harris thanked Joe Biden for having the “audacity” to choose a woman as his running mate, “to break one of the most substantial barriers that exist in our country.” There have been 48 American vice presidents, every single one a white man.

Harris took a moment to address those watching as she made history.

“Every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. To the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message — dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they’ve never seen it before.”

President-elect Joe Biden took to Twitter to acknowledge that he would not have won the White House without Black voters who were crucial to his successful campaign, particularly in critical states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia.

Harris often framed her candidacy as part of the legacy of pioneering Black women who came before her, including educator Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination, in 1972.

In addition to acknowledging the women who paved the way for this moment, Harris noted that she has shattered a barrier for women, especially women of colour, in politics.

“While I may be the first woman in this office I will not be the last,” she said.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played a fictional female VP for seven years took to Twitter to celebrate that a woman being elected to that role is now a reality.

With files from The Associated Press

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today