The evolution of Kamala Harris

From a childhood activist to US presidential candidate, the daughter of civil rights campaigners has an unbroken history of working to change 'anything that wasn't right', friends say.

- Janell Ross

IT WAS THE FIRST WEEK OF JULY. News of the presidential election had been mired, for eight days, in alarming assessments of Joe Biden after his disastrous debate with Donald Trump. The president had started but not finished sentences, slurred words and at points stood with his mouth slightly agape.

Now, at the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans, Kamala Harris was set to speak. The attendees - mostly Black women - were talking about the possibilities: did her future lie at the top of the Democratic party's ticket?

"Who is Kamala Harris?" host Caroline Wanga asked her guest. "The vice-president of the United States," Harris responded. "I am a wife. We have children. I am a god-mommy. I am an auntie. I am a best friend. I am a good cook... and you know, I am a fighter for people. I am prepared to fight."

Until late July, Harris had been the running mate of the oldest man to seek the presidency. Today, the nation's first Black and south Asian and female vice-president, once characterised as a public official struggling to find her footing, is a presidential candidate with a narrow lead over her opponent, Donald Trump.

Last Thursday night, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, she formally accepted the party's presidential nomination with a sweeping, pointed speech in which she vowed to prosecute the case against Trump and carry the country to a brighter and fairer future. In an address that balanced optimism with scathing criticism of her opponent, Harris acknowledged her "unlikely" path to the nomination and extended her hand to voters of all political ideologies.

"Our nation, with this election, has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward - not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans," she said.