This 2019 literary work by the current vice president and Democratic Party presidential candidate explores the life and learnings of Kamala Harris as she “battles for the soul of the country.” How did the second-generation American rise to become a presidential candidate?
“First, my name is pronounced ‘comma-la’, like the punctuation mark,” Harris writes. “It means ‘lotus flower,’ a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.”
Harris was raised by two immigrant parents, Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan Harris, in Oakland, California. Harris’s parents both immigrated to the United States from India and Jamaica, seeking higher education. Harris and her younger sister, Maya, felt loved by their family overseas and even after their parents got a divorce.
The pinnacle moment in Harris’s education and training was during a summer internship with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. A young woman, a mother, had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when a drug bust occurred. Harris was able to successfully get the judge back to their stand to release the woman for the weekend. Helping to free a wrongly accused citizen to return home to her family sparked Harris’s passion for using her knowledge of the law to support working-class people.
Prior to her summer internship, Harris went to college and law school. Participating in many African-American student organizations helped her find purpose in her legal career. The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and the Black Law Students Association were among these communities for Harris. Her childhood role models were pioneers in the Civil Rights Movement who kindled her interest in racial justice.
After passing the Bar Exam on her second attempt, Harris was sworn in as a lawyer “for the people.” Some of her early and most heartbreaking cases involved girls, ages six to 14, who had been sexually abused. Later working for the San Francisco Attorney’s Office, Harris and Norma Hotaling established a safe house for sexually exploited youth in the area.
When Harris decided to run for district attorney, she found herself behind an ironing board in a supermarket parking lot—her dedication to meeting people and listening to their concerns paid off when she won the election. More than 15 years later, Harris is running for president of the United States.
Harris’s immense passion for social justice deepened when she met with Black and Latina mothers from high-crime rate neighborhoods who had lost their children to homicide. Pursuing legal actions and consoling grieving mothers clarified Harris’s mental depiction of the America she fights for.
From racial justice to supporting sexual violence victims to championing the legalization of marijuana to reduce disproportionately Black incarcerations, Harris devotes herself to helping citizens in need.
“When someone is suffering from addiction, their situation is made worse, not better, by involvement in the criminal justice system,” Harris writes. “What they need is treatment, and we should fight for a system that provides it.”
Harris is the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nominee. Championing minority rights, freedoms, and safety, Harris displays her literary prowess throughout this 314-page memoir.
