DA Kamala Speaks

In December 2003 Kamala D. Harris, a veteran prosecutor, was elected as the first woman District Attorney in San Francisco's history and the first African American woman in California to hold the office. She defeated her former boss and two-term incumbent Terrance Hallinan, 56-44 percent, as a progressive who could bring professionalism and competence to the job of prosecuting the city’s criminals.

DA Harris’ victory over Hallinan, a fixture of the city's political establishment, was impressive in its reach across the city's neighborhoods. In her victory speech Harris said the win was about building a coalition around the idea of “one” San Francisco.

The 1990 Hastings College of Law graduate adds, “When you look at the map after the elections, the results, we had a strong showing from the gay community from the Castro, from Bay View and from Chinatown . It was like all these communities were connected around the campaign and that is really important to me personally.”

The DA wasted little time in creating a public integrity unit that goes after people who are in the position of public trust and who violate it. That includes anyone from a police officer to a public official who engages in misconduct. She asserts, “It’s important that everyone follow the law, and that when people don’t, especially those who have invested public trust, that there be a consequence for that.”

An artist herself, with years worn projects still hanging on the walls of her mother’s home, DA Harris today lines the normally cold corridors of the halls of justice with friendly art on loan from the Academy of Art University.

DA Harris believes that witnesses to crimes or victims of crimes should be able to walk down the halls of justice - a place that they may have to spend days and weeks during the course of a trial - and see things that make them feel good about themselves.

“I absolutely believe that all of those people are equally entitled to a certain standard and level of attention, of care and professionalism. They are entitled just as any person who can afford to go to a top law firm downtown right?” Proclaims Harris.

DA Harris, 40, was born in Oakland and raised in Berkeley . She is the daughter of prominent breast cancer specialist Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian who moved to the United States in 1960 and Donald Harris, a Jamaican, professor of economics at Stanford University.

Her parents separated when Kamala was five, but she and her sister Maya Lakshmi, were brought up jointly and recognized Indian, American and Caribbean traditions.  Both her parents were active in the civil rights movement, an inspiration that seemingly led Kamala to study Law. Her attorney sister serves as the associate directory with the Northern California ’s ACLU office in San Francisco.

Although she was raised mainly by her Indian mother, DA Harris is mostly identified as African American in the media. She says that’s because this country’s history says you’re either black or white.

“Most people don’t know of the octoroons, the one-eight rule. It was that if you had one-eight of African blood, you were considered black or a Negro.” Harris explains and then she adds. “The term African-American was used in recognition that people who have an African heritage will all be lumped into the same group and it should be an inclusive group.”

DA Harris grew up going to an Indian temple and a black Baptist church. She says, “That is just the reality, my mother raised us in the African American community with that understanding and recognition but with a strong and deep sense of connection and identify with my Indian culture.”

That meant the Harris girls practically went to two services on the same day. “My extended family from Louisiana and I would go to the black Baptist church and then everyone would come over and my mother would make a little Indian meal. These things were never mutually exclusive to me. It was the way it was.”

Growing up as bi-racial in Berkeley in some ways was easier. The DA explains, “People in Berkeley were able to incorporate all of these different things without much confusion. Others would be confused and then I would have to opt for one [race] or the other.”

DA Harris describes her mother as being a strong and an incredibly bright woman who had a huge influence on her and that she reveled in being a mom. “My mother is also somebody that understands that you love unconditionally, but still have very high expectations and take no bullshit.”

She confides that her mother worked full-time with little or no help, but contends she was always there in spirit and deed. She remembers, “There were always homemade cookies.” And she recalls repeatedly catching her mother working late sewing. “I would wake up in the middle of the night and there she was, at the sewing machine making us dresses.”

Winning her mother’s approval seemed inevitable. DA Harris says, “There were no excuses for not being the best at what we did. Being your best was something that she always encouraged, and actually required and demanded.”

That winning night in 2003, the newly elected DA felt fortunate to have the parent who raised and loved her at her side. DA Harris reveals, “Given again the fact that she was mostly a single parent, doing all that she did with these two kids, by herself, working so hard. When I saw her sitting there just proud, that was just terrific.” With tears in her eyes she finishes, “I can’t even explain the feeling that it gave me. It made it all worth it.”

When the newly elected DA arrived home that evening at 1:00 a.m from celebrating, she called her elderly grandmother in India with the winning news. “She told me that she already knew.” Harris says laughingly. “She got the news off of the web!”