During her victory speech and first address as Vice President-Elect, Kamala Harris reflected on the legacy of her mother, who emigrated from India, and the hard work of generations of women to achieve equal rights.
"I am thinking about her, and about the generations of women — Black women, Asian, White, Latina, Native American women — who throughout our nation's history have paved the way for this moment tonight," Harris said.
"I stand on their shoulders."
“When she came here from India at the age of 19, she maybe didn’t quite imagine this moment,” Harris said speaking of her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, to who she attributed her success.
"But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible".
She appeared to tear up as she mentioned her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who immigrated to the United States to attend the University of California at Berkeley and become a breast cancer researcher.
"While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities," she added later.
For her historic remarks as the first woman elected vice president, Kamala Harris wore a white pant-suit — an enduring symbol of the suffrage movement that won women the right to vote a century ago.
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