Kamala Harris has made history as she joins the Biden ticket for the 2020 Presidential Election. According to The New York Times, she is “the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent nominated for national office, and only the fourth woman in U.S. history to be chosen for a presidential ticket.” However, there are other nonwhite women whose contributions to American politics are significant but hidden, who additionally helped set the stage for discourse on a wide array of political and social issues.
Kamala Harris
As a graduate of Howard University, Kamala Harris’ rise in politics can be understood through her relationship with her sister Maya Harris. According to the Washington Post, Maya currently serves as her sister’s campaign chairwoman but has been integral in helping her sister surge in polls during the early months of her presidential campaign. Kamala rose to her career in politics by starting as a law enforcement official while Maya has worked at the forefront of criminal justice restructuring. Maya’s experience “working as one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign for the 2016 election” has given her a taste for national politics.
The Harris sisters’ upbringing foreshadowed their involvement with politics and activism. Their parents were Donald Harris, who emigrated from Jamaica to go to graduate school, and Shyamala Harris, who emigrated from India to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology. Both her parents were civil rights activists who brought their children to protests that exposed the sisters to many of the political and racial concerns of the time. Maya followed in her mother’s footsteps by becoming “a leader at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a vice president at the Ford Foundation.”
Maya Harris’s latest success with her sister’s campaign has included encouraging Harris to be more willing to share their personal stories and upbringings. For example, recounting her upbringing, Maya joked in an article from The Washington Post that Kamala was known as someone who was “either going to be putting people in prison or going to prison.” While the two sisters’ occupations are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, they grew with each other enough to see the benefits of having one another’s opposite perspectives in their work. After being exposed to injustices from a young age by their parents, both women realized it was important to dedicate their work towards increasing representation in politics.
Charlotta Bass
Contrary to the popular belief, Kamala Harris was not the first woman of color to run for political office as a vice presidential nominee. According to an article in The New York Times, in 1952 Charlotta Bass became, “the first Black woman to run for vice president, on the Progressive Party ticket.” While winning was never the priority for Bass, making sure “we win by raising the issues” was. Bass was empowered to raise many issues that would foreshadow political developments in the future, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and school desegregation.
Before running for office, she was the editor and publisher of the West Coast’s oldest Black newspaper, The California Eagle, where she raised those issues that concerned her. She used the paper to advance a range of social justice causes, including denouncing “the Hollywood production of “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), which glorified the Ku Klux Klan, and, in the 1930s, endorsed a campaign known as “Don’t Spend Where You Can’t Work,” urging readers to boycott stores that refused to hire Black employees.” She was also known for her extensive publications exposing police brutality.
Bass was predominately a Republican voter but eventually denounced both major parties for not addressing women’s rights. Some of Bass’s beliefs were also considered radical during the time of her work, such as civil rights, organized labor, redirect military budgets for social needs, and universal healthcare.
Described by The New York Times as having led a “remarkable life as a journalist and activist,” Charlotta Bass has, in many ways, “helped lay the foundation for a figure like Harris, the first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to be nominated on a major-party ticket.”
Claudia Jones
With the power of her heritage and her knack for writing, Claudia Jones is best known for her contributions in intersectional activism, specifically, having founded the Notting Hill Carnival or Caribbean Carnival in the U.K. Born in Trinidad, she emigrated to New York City where she lived until being deported to the U.K. in 1955. Much of Jones’ activism was rooted in her experience as a Black woman in Harlem. Jones was known for her passionate theoretical essays that would make connections or provoke ideas that others would have missed.
Following her passion in journalism, she became the “Negro Affairs Editor” of the Daily Worker. As editor she became even more intertwined in politics and activism, highlighting the injustices of Jim Crow segregation and the increasing poverty among African-American communities. She became increasingly aware of the racism in her life and began seeking advocates who argued for inclusion of gender as well as race and class in work for justice. Her most prominent piece of work “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!” (1949), helped establish the foundations of intersectional feminism.
When she settled in London after 1955, she remained committed to fighting against racial tensions and anti-immigration rhetoric in the city. She became editor of the West Indian Gazette, Britain’s first Black newspaper, with the mission to be a protector and advocate for the Caribbean Community in London. When the summer of 1958 brought violent, racist riots against the Black community in Notting Hill and Nottingham, Jones was determined to establish what we know today as Notting Hill Carnival. The Notting Hill Carnival’s purpose was to unite Londoners, by allowing everyone to embrace the culture of Caribbean heritage with dance, music, food, and art. This event attracted many tourists and has now become an annual celebration in the city. With the power of her writing and commitment to improving Black lives, Jones’ legacy has been instrumental in liberating Black communities.
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