The making of Kamala Harris, from slaver ancestry to civil rights

Kamala Harris owes her place in history to her mother, Shyamala Gopalan , who gave birth to her in 1964 .

The 26-year-old Indian immigrant gave birth at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland , California , in the autumn of 1964 .

She was 19 in 1958 when she graduated with a degree in home science from Lady Irwin College in Delhi , India .

With her father’s blessing, she travelled to Berkeley in search of a higher education.

She received her PhD and gained recognition for her research in breast cancer.

The final divorce judgment, dated July 23, 1973 , shows Shyamala gained physical custody, but Donald was entitled to take the girls on alternating weekends and for 60 days in the summer .

Harris weaves references to her mother throughout her autobiography.

She mentions her father on fewer than a dozen pages of her biography.

Her father’s side provides other challenges for Harris too, adding to complexities of her mixed heritage.

Kamala recalls in her memoir that “the thought of moving away from sunny California in February , in the middle of the school year , to a French -speaking foreign city covered in 12 feet of snow was distressing” She describes happiness as “making long-distance phone calls,” and her cherished memory entry reads, “ California , Angelo ; summer ’ 80”.