Kamala Harris's life in pictures: One last glance marks end of historic era
Kamala Harris might not be the next US president, but she's certainly made history plenty of times in her career.
Here, we look back at the life of the daughter of immigrants who became one of the most powerful political figures in the world.
Harris was born in Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964.
She's the eldest of two daughters to parents Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris.
Both Harris' parents immigrated to America.
Her mother, a biomedical scientist, arrived from India in the late 1950s.
Her father, an economist and professor, travelled to the US from Jamaica in the early 1960s.
Harris's parents met at Berkley University and married in 1963.
They divorced in 1972, when Harris was just seven.
She and her sister, Maya, spent their formative schooling in Montreal after her mother got a teaching job at McGill University.
To Harris, her mother is her North Star.
"My mother, Dr Shyamala Gopalan Harris, came to the United States from India alone at the age of 19," she wrote.
"Her courage and determination made me who I am today."
Harris has spoken little about her father in her public life.
"My father remained a part of our lives," she wrote in her 2019 memoir 'The Truths We Hold'.
"We would see him on weekends and spend summers with him in Palo Alto. But it was my mother who took charge of our upbringing.
"She was the one most responsible for shaping us into the women we would become."
Harris's parents were both active in the civil rights movement, taking her to marches when she was still in a stroller.
"There's something I remember from my childhood that really made me believe in the possibilities of our country — I saw people of all ages, all colors, all religions, all backgrounds, unified in their fight for justice," Harris said back in 2016.
"We must continue this today."
Harris's mother (left) and her mother's friend, Lenore Pomerance during a civil rights protest in Berkeley, California.
Harris followed in her parents' footsteps, standing on the front lines of activism in the 1960s and 1970s.
She spent her university years Howard University and the University of California Hastings College of Law.
"My mother would look at me and she'd say, 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last," Harris once said.
After graduating law school in 1989, Harris applied to join the district attorney's office of Alameda County in California.
Her ambitious nature didn't go unnoticed and in 1990 she was hired.
She spent eight years working in Alameda before leaving to work for the District Attorney's office in San Francisco.
In 2003, she was named the District Attorney of San Francisco.
In her role as District Attorney of San Francisco she became a leader in the movement for LGBTQ+ rights.
On Valentine's Day 2004, she officiated one of the first same-sex wedding in America.
Sadly, in 2009 Harris's mother died of colon cancer. She was 70.
It was Shyamala's dying wish to return to her homeland of India. In late 2009, Harris fulfilled that wish, travelling with her mother's ashes to Chennai.
Together with her uncle, Harris walked to the beach in Besant Nagar and scattered the ashes on the waves.
A year later, in 2010, Harris was elected Attorney General of California.
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