The Achievement

Kamala Harris was inaugurated as the 49th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 2021, alongside President Joe Biden. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina on the Supreme Court, administered her oath.

Harris wore a purple coat over a white dress. The white was a deliberate reference to the suffragette movement.

The milestone was threefold. She became the first Black person to serve as Vice President, the first South Asian American to hold the office, and the first woman to do so. No prior nominee had reached the vice presidency from any of those three positions.

Each distinction matters on its own. Combined, they represent an event without precedent in American history.

Life Before the Vice Presidency

Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. Her father, Donald Harris, is a Jamaican economist; her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was an Indian cancer researcher. She grew up in Oakland and Berkeley.

She attended Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C., earning a degree in political science and economics in 1986. She earned her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989.

She served as District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. In 2011, she became the first Black woman and first South Asian person elected Attorney General of California. She won re-election in 2014 and served until 2017.

She was elected to the U.S. Senate from California in 2016, becoming one of only two Black women serving in the Senate at the time. In the Senate, she served on the Judiciary, Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Budget committees.

The Path to the Vice Presidency

Harris launched her own campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in January 2019. She suspended that campaign in December 2019, before the Iowa caucuses.

On August 11, 2020, Joe Biden announced he had selected Harris as his running mate. She was the third woman nominated for vice president by a major American political party (following Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008) and the first Black and first South Asian person in that position on a major ticket.

The 2020 general election was held on November 3. Biden and Harris won with 306 electoral votes and 81.2 million popular votes, the most votes ever received by a presidential ticket at that time.

The results were certified on January 7, 2021, the day after the attack on the Capitol. Harris was inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

Breaking the Barrier

Harris was not the first woman nominated for vice president. But she was the first woman to take the oath.

She was not the first Black candidate to seek national office at the presidential level. But she was the first Black person to be inaugurated as Vice President.

She was the first South Asian American to reach either of the top two executive offices.

The historical distinctiveness comes from all three categories converging at once. Remove any one of those characteristics and the milestone changes entirely.

Impact and Legacy

As Vice President, Harris took on specific policy portfolios, including the administration's response to the root causes of migration from Central America and voting rights. She presided over the Senate and cast tie-breaking votes on legislation during a period when the Senate was divided 50-50.

Her visibility in the role carried significance for representation. For the first time, young Black and South Asian American girls could point to a person who looked like them holding the second-highest office in the country.

Harris's vice presidency also prompted ongoing public discussion about how women in executive office are covered and characterized in media, conversations that extended beyond her to broader questions about gender in politics.

The Women Who Came Before

Harris's inauguration was not a sudden arrival. It was the product of more than 50 years of Black women building a presence in American political life.

Shirley Chisholm was elected to Congress from Brooklyn in 1968, becoming the first Black woman in the House of Representatives. Four years later, she sought the Democratic presidential nomination and won 152 delegate votes. She was underfunded, faced skepticism from party leadership, and did not win the nomination. But she proved the question was worth asking.

Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992. She served one term. She ran briefly for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.

Condoleezza Rice served as National Security Advisor (2001-2005) and then Secretary of State (2005-2009), becoming one of the most senior Black women in executive branch history.

Each step was necessary before the next became conceivable. Harris's path from California Attorney General to U.S. Senator to Vice President built on everything that came before it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was the first Black woman vice president?

Kamala Harris was the first Black woman, and the first woman of any race, to serve as Vice President of the United States. She was inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

Who was the first Black female vice president?

Kamala Harris. She was inaugurated as the 49th Vice President on January 20, 2021, becoming simultaneously the first Black person, first South Asian person, and first woman to hold the office.

When was the first Black woman elected vice president?

Kamala Harris was elected on November 3, 2020, and inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

Was Kamala Harris the first woman to serve as vice president?

Yes. Geraldine Ferraro (1984) and Sarah Palin (2008) were both nominated on major-party tickets but did not win. Harris was the first woman to be elected and inaugurated as Vice President.

Who was the first Black woman to run for president?

Shirley Chisholm was the first Black candidate to seek a major-party presidential nomination. She ran for the Democratic nomination in 1972 and won 152 delegate votes at the convention.