Vice President Kamala Harris most of the time recognized her parents, Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris, as the ones who instilled values and the desire for her to do better in her life. The two graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, during the 1960s, had undergone considerably diverse backgrounds but were bound together by their strong commitment to the cause of civil rights and social justice.
Shyamala Gopalan: A trailblazing scientist
Shyamala Gopalan was born in southern India, but she moved to the U.S. at 19 to follow her dreams of studying biochemistry to find a cure for cancer. Having never been outside of India before, she took up the learning opportunity staring right in front of her. Gopalan did her undergraduate degree in Delhi University when just 19, and then went on to do a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in nutrition and endocrinology.
For Harris, Gopalan’s pioneering work in breast cancer, coupled with the strength to face biases and stereotypes hurled at a woman of color who speaks with an accent, was powerful inspiration. She instilled pride in heritage and deep awareness of identity as Black women in America.
Donald Harris: A Jamaican economist and scholar
Donald Harris was born in Jamaica but came to the U.S. for his doctorate in economics. He was much attracted to the racial and ethnic diverse society that existed within the U.S. and actively participated in the Civil Rights Movement together with his wife.
Harris is a professor emeritus at Stanford University, known for his application of post-Keynesian ideas to the concerns of development economics. Indeed, he has worked on economic analysis and policy related to the economy of Jamaica throughout his career, his native country. There, at various times, he has served as an economic policy consultant to the Government of Jamaica and economic adviser to successive prime ministers.
He has extensively undertaken research on the economy of Jamaica, providing analyses and reports on the structural conditions, historical performance, and contemporary problems of the economy, besides plans and policies for promoting economic growth with social inclusion.
A love story shaped by the Civil Rights Movement
Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris met in 1962 as graduate students at UC Berkeley, through a study group for Black students that would eventually develop into the Afro-American Association. Gopalan was not Black but was invited into the group because of her experience as a British colonial subject in India.
Soon enough, the couple’s romance took off, and within a year they were married. They became highly active in the Civil Rights Movement, together with involving their then-small daughter Kamala in the movements and telling her what was happening.
Though they moved to the Midwest for Donald’s first teaching job and later divorced in 1972, Shyamala remained the strongest influence on Kamala. She succumbed to colon cancer in 2009, though her legacy remains an inspiration to her daughter.
The parents of Kamala Harris, Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris, truly have been an indelible mark upon her life and career. Harris drew from the love story of her parents, harnessed in the Civil Rights Movement, coupled with the urge for social justice shared by both. In her 2019 memoir titled, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” Kamala Harris describes her dad as a “brilliant student.” She also shares how her mother made the unlikely journey from India to Berkeley.
From an act or self determination and love for her nation taking values and principles from her parents—people very much on different walks of life brought together by their quest for a world where there is more equity—to be Vice President for her.
