It’s official! Senator Kamala Harris is now the Vice-President elect of the United States, and she’s made history three times. Harris is now the first woman, Black woman and Asian woman to be elected Vice President of the United States.
During a visit to the 2019 ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans, the then-presidential candidate spoke to the crowd about how her upbringing helped to shape the history-making woman she is today and how she has her mother to thank for her fierce work ethic.
“I am a daughter of the civil rights movement,” Harris said on stage. “I grew up in a family and in a community of adults who spent full time marching and shouting about this thing called justice.”
The politician and attorney, who has served as the junior United States senator from California since 2017, said she and her sister, Maya Harris, were deeply impacted by their mother’s teachings during their childhood.
“Our mother, she taught us the importance of a good education,” said Harris. “She taught us the good old-fashioned value of hard work. She taught us don’t let anyone tell you who you are. You tell them who you are. And she taught us not only to dream, but to do. And she taught us to believe in our power to right what is wrong.”
Watch the entire moment above. Congratulations Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.