Donald Harris holding his daughter Kamala

Harris’ background shaped her identity in both her personal and political life. Her father, Donald J. Harris, is a Jamaican immigrant and professor of economics at Stanford University. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who died in 2009, was an Indian immigrant and breast cancer researcher. Both of Harris' parents were active in the civil rights movement, often bringing Kamala to protests in a stroller. They divorced when Kamala was 7.