Who Is Kamala Harris?

In her new book, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” Kamala Harris tells the story of her rise from a young girl growing up in Oakland to her 2016 election as U.S. senator from California.

Harris was born in 1964 to two immigrant parents. Her mother, a native of India, was a scientist; her father, who came to the U.S. from Jamaica, is an emeritus economics professor at Stanford University. Her mother was originally supposed to enter an arranged marriage in India, but she scrapped that plan when she met Harris’ father at Berkeley, where the two were active in the civil rights movement.