Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on the final night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago Thursday night, and the California native made mention of her Midwest ties.
Though born in Los Angeles and primarily raised in the East Bay area in northern California, Harris wasn't exclusively out west as a child.
Long before she strode on stage Monday at the United Center as the Democratic presidential nominee, a very young Kamala Harris toddled around a house in Evanston, 13 miles to the north.
Harris, born in California in 1964, owes her Illinois connection to her parents’ careers in academia.
After a stint in Urbana-Champaign while both parents worked at the University of Illinois, the Harris family moved to Northwestern University in Evanston.
There, Harris’ father, Donald Harris, was an assistant professor of economics during the 1967-68 school year. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was a staff member in the Biological Sciences Department, according to Northwestern archives.
In Evanston, they lived in a house at 620 Library Place, just west of Sheridan Road along the edge of campus.
Now, nearly 60 years after the family lived there, Harris hopes to become the first woman — and first Black woman and first Asian American— elected president.
And her former residence?
It’s now home to the university’s Program of African Studies.
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The front of the house appears unchanged, though an addition in the back has room for classes, lecture halls and student gatherings.
Kelly Coffey, a business administrator in the African Studies program, works in the building.
She knew that before the program moved into the house it had been used as housing for professors and their families. But she said that until recently, the staff had no idea of the Harris connection.
“I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a surprise,’” Coffey said. “How neat.”
