Harris details her life as the daughter of immigrants, born in Oakland, California and raised in West Berkeley in her memoir The Truths We Hold: An American Journey (Young Edition). In this book she sets to empower the next generation of girls. She describes her childhood neighborhood as ” a close-knit neighborhood of working families who were focused on doing a good job, paying the bills, and being there for one another.”
Harris would eventually become San Francisco district attorney. Her decision to become a prosecutor was so she could serve “the victims of crimes committed and the victims of a broken criminal justice system.” Understanding this dichotomy, Harris describes herself as a progressive prosecutor. She elaborates:
It is to understand that when a person takes another’s life, or a child is molested, or a woman raped, the perpetrators deserve severe consequences. That is one imperative of justice. But it is also to understand that fairness is in short supply in a justice system that is supposed to guarantee it. The job of a progressive prosecutor is to look out for the overlooked, to speak up for those whose voices aren’t being heard, to see and address the causes of crime, not just their consequences, and to shine a light on the inequality and unfairness that lead to injustice. It is to recognize that not everyone needs punishment, that what many need, quite plainly, is help.
The book continues on through her time as California Attorney General, her face-off against fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 U.S. Senate election, and ends with her touting her fights against the Trump administration.
ABOUT: Kamala Harris (kamalaharris.org) serves as a U.S. senator from California and is the vice president-elect of the U.S. Before becoming a senator, she worked in the Alameda County district attorney’s office, and was later elected district attorney of San Francisco and then Attorney General of California. The second African American woman and the first person of Indian descent ever elected to the U.S. Senate, and the first woman, African American, and person of Indian descent ever to be elected to the vice presidency, she works hard to make sure all people have equal rights, especially kids. You can follow Kamala Harris on Facebook at Facebook.com/KamalaHarris or on Twitter @KamalaHarris.
Author Kamala Harris
Country United States
Language English
Genre Memoir
Publisher Penguin Books
Pages 336
ISBN 978-0525560715
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