I learn new things about my hometown all the time.
Kamala Harris has a special connection to Urbana, Illinois, where she spent her formative years. Urbana nurtured her early life and played a significant role in shaping her upbringing. Her ties to Urbana reflect a part of her journey, highlighting how personal roots can influence public service and leadership.
Via Seth Fein:
Here is a photo of my friend Lisa Gottheil, with Kamala Harris and her sister, Maya (in the middle) when they were living in Champaign, or perhaps visiting after having moved away. It’s hard to know for sure exactly when the photo was taken, but it was taken on Pond St. in Urbana, and it seems like the heart of the Midwest summer, and the get up is fairly patriotic, so let’s just call it the 4th of July circa 1972 or so, which will make this photo even more apropos.
Their father, an immigrant from Jamaica, is Donald Harris. He was a professor of economics at [the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] and then went on to Northwestern, Wisconsin, and finally, Stanford. Her sister Maya — a prominent lawyer and Hillary Clinton policy advisor — was actually born here (in 1967). Their mother was Shyamala Gopalan Harris, also an immigrant from India, a breast cancer researcher, before she passed in 2009.
Update: Reader Pete Nelson points out that this photo was taken in front of 2511 Pond Street in Urbana.
Michael Castellon 