Friday Five
Our country’s first Madam Vice President hails from the East Bay. She is proud of it, and we’re proud back. Kamala Harris often mentions that she was born in Oakland and spent her early childhood years in Berkeley; she has also said that the Bay Area is “where her soul is.” She even chose Oakland as the place to announce her bid for president in Oakland in 2019.
With just a couple months before Harris becomes our country’s first female vice president, first Black vice president, and first South Asian American vice president, we wanted to take a look back at her years growing up in the East Bay. When we did, we learned a few things we didn’t know before.
Here are five facts about Harris’ childhood you may not know.
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1. Kamala Harris’ parents met at UC Berkeley, and her mother was basically a single mom
Kamala Devi Harris was born at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland on October 20, 1964. She was the firstborn child to her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, and father, Donald Harris, both of whom had come to America to pursue graduate degrees at UC Berkeley. Shyamala pursued a doctorate in endocrinology and nutrition; Donald received a doctorate in economics.
Shyamala came to the United States at age 19 for her education and was supposed to return for an arranged marriage but did not, according to an interview Kamala gave to The Atlantic. At five feet tall, Shyamala was a “formidable” woman who had “literally no patience for mediocrity.”
Kamala’s mother largely operated as the single caretaker, even before her parents divorced when she was seven, taking Kamala and her little sister, Maya, to her work at a lab at the university when needed. Kamala has said that her mom didn’t coddle: If they told their mom about a problem, she would ask, “Well, what did you do?” to encourage them to come up with a solution on their own.
2. Harris attended civil rights protests in Berkeley, shaping her career decision
Harris’ parents reportedly shared an interest in the civil rights movement that was taking place across the country, and especially on the Berkeley campus. They often took Kamala along to protests in a stroller. In a story told to The Atlantic, she said that at age one, she started fussing at one of the rallies. When her mother bent down and asked, “What do you want?” she replied, “Fweedom!”
Later, Harris has said that going to to those protests showed her that she wanted inside power, leading her to pursue law. “When activists came marching and banging on doors,” Harris wrote in her memoir, “I wanted to be on the other side to let them in.”
3. She was protective of and close with her sister, Maya
Kamala often has her sister, Maya—and Maya’s family—by her side today. And they have always been close. “She was protective… Maybe just a liiiiiiiittle bossy,” Maya told The Atlantic about Kamala, noting that her sister would look out for her on the schoolyard.
The pair stuck together and worked together, even organizing a children’s protest to overturn a policy that banned children from playing in the courtyard of their apartment building (which they won).
4. She was raised to embrace both her South Asian and Black heritage
Harris has said that her parents taught her to be proud of both her South Asian and Black identities. She attended both a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple in the East Bay.
Her mother was proud of her Indian heritage, and they would travel back to India every couple years. Harris’ grandparents from India also visited Berkeley often. Her grandfather was a prominent politician from the county and one of the original Independence fighters. “Some of my fondest memories from childhood were walking along the beach with him after he retired,” where they would talk politics, argue, voice opinions, and laugh, Harris told CNN.
At the same time, her mother also “understood very well that she was raising two Black daughters and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud Black women,” Harris wrote in her book. She took her daughters to Berkeley’s Black cultural center, Rainbow Sign, to hear Maya Angelou read poetry and Nina Simone sing.
5. Harris was part of a class of students bused to desegregate Berkeley’s schools
Okay, so you probably know this fact, given the prominence of it at the Democratic presidential debates. But it’s still worth diving into. “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me,” Harris said as she debated with Joe Biden over his record on busing programs.
Harris attended Thousand Oaks Elementary near Solano Avenue (which now features her in a mural). She was bused there during the second year of the city’s integration program to help desegregate it by bringing predominantly Black, lower-middle-class kids from across the city to prosperous districts where white children mainly attended.
Berkeley’s desegregation plan was largely deemed successful. Thousand Oaks Elementary was 95% white and 3% Black in 1963; when Harris started kindergarten in 1969, it was 53% white and 40% Black, for example.
Once Harris’ parents got divorced, she moved to Montreal when she was 12. But as you know, she came back to California for school and to launch her career. But that’s another story.
