Kamala Devi Harris was sworn in on Wednesday as the country’s first black and South Asian vice president.
She swore an oath just before Joe Biden was named 46th president of the nation.
Sonia Sotomayor, the first Supreme Court judge in Latin America, administered Harris’ vice-presidential oath.
Harris and Biden on inauguration day inherit a country facing the Covid crisis, an economic recession and demands for racial justice.
The daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris has made history throughout his career.
As a United States senator from California, Harris, 56, was the second black woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the upper house. Prior to his inauguration in the Senate, Harris was California’s first black and South Asian attorney general. Harris also served as a district attorney for San Francisco.
Harris ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primaries before joining the Biden ticket. Her track record as a prosecutor has at times elicited criticism from progressive criminal justice reform advocates, although Harris said he sought reform within those roles. Harris clashed with Biden during the first Democratic debate, criticizing his track record on issues of racial justice.
Howard University student and member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha fraternity, Harris is also the first vice president to graduate from a historically black college and be part of a historically black letters organization.
After his own inauguration, Harris is expected to take office from three senators who have broken barriers in his new role as mayor.
Alex Padilla, appointed by California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom as Harris’ successor, will be the state’s first Latin senator. After a competitive second round in January, Rev. Raphael Warnock will be the first black senator from Georgia and Jon Ossoff will be the first Jewish senator from Peach state.
The new Democratic senators will create a 50-50 split between the two party seats in the Senate, giving Democrats a small majority with Harris as the tiebreaker.
During the campaign, Harris always remembered a message that his mother, Shyamala Gopalan, said: “You can be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.”