The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“For the People: The Driving Force Behind Kamala Harris”

Book Review by Dr. Brenda M. Greene
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris
Penguin Press, 368 pp.

In the opening paragraph of her memoir The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, (Penguin Press, 2019) Vice President Kamala Harris states: “I had a sense that I wanted to be a prosecutor, that I wanted to be on the front lines of criminal justice reform, that I wanted to protect the vulnerable.”

Protecting the vulnerable and the people is a mantra throughout Harris’s memoir, an inspirational story of her early life as the daughter of immigrants, a Jamaican man and South Indian woman who met and later married while they were advocating for civil rights, and of her professional journey that begins with her work in the office of the Alameda County District Attorney and continues with her election as the San Francisco Attorney General, and her election as a US State Senator. Harris’s commitment to working for the people has been a driving force throughout her life’s work and in The Truths We Hold, readers will gain a deeper understanding of what lies beneath the surface of Kamala Harris.

The memoir opens in the backdrop of her winning the US Senate race, the second Black woman elected to this position in the nation’s history. She provides a litany of what she has learned in the concluding chapter of her memoir. The maxims “If it’s worth fighting for, it’s a fight worth having,” “speak the truth,” “words matter” and “no one should have to fight alone,” epitomize Harris’s world view and her determination to advocate “for the people”, and in doing so, to know that it will be a struggle. The “truths we hold” include mass incarceration, police brutality, racial bias, the government’s failure to recognize drug addiction as a public health crisis, and the devastating effects of climate change on the economy and environment.

She wages war in many areas that include: the criminal justice system, sexual predators, mortgage bank frauds, climate control, homeland security, corporate predators at for profit colleges, and cybersecurity. What is significant is that she articulates the problem, discusses its negative and long term effects on vulnerable populations, and describes the policies that she has created and recommended to address the problem and to hold those who violate the rights of others accountable.

Harris is solution driven and understands that the power to effect change lies in holding office and in being in the room and at the table. When she decides to work in the Attorney General’s Office she not only wants to deal with individual cases; she wants to work on policies that can improve the system as a whole. As you read or listen to her story, you will hear her prosecutorial voice that weighs the evidence and examines what will be best “for the people.” Interwoven with that voice are the many personal stories and examples of the ways that she has been a “progressive prosecutor,” one who understands that the best way to create safe communities is to prevent crime and one who uses the power of the attorney general’s office with a sense of fairness, perspective, and experience that holds serious criminals accountable. She calls on the needs for more district attorneys who look like her.

One of the stirring descriptions in this memoir is that of a drug bust case. The police had arrested a number of individuals in a raid and a young woman, an innocent bystander had been arrested. Because it was Friday, she would have had to spend the weekend in jail. Harris thought deeply about the negative effects of this. What were the immediate and long term effects of a young Black woman staying in jail over the weekend? Did she have a job or children? What was her standing in the community? She had done nothing wrong but her life could be changed forever. Harris rushed to the clerk of the court and pleaded to have the case heard that evening. After reviewing the case, the Judge dismissed it and the young woman was free to go home. This case was transformative experience for Harris and it became clear for her that the fight for social justice involved taking a lead in the movement.

Harris’s chapter on the cost of living paints a vivid description of what happened in 2017. This includes the administration’s tax cuts for people who didn’t need it and tax raises for the vulnerable, the sabotaging of the Affordable Care Act by driving up premiums, the igniting of a trade war, the nomination of judges who were intent on destroying organized labor, and the cancelation of a pay raise for civil servants.

The words “Alongside the achievements of the American experiment lies a dark history that we have to deal with the present” represent Harris’s “compass”. She notes that her daily challenge is to be part of the solution and to be a joyful warrior in the battle to become. The Truths We Hold reveals much of what you may not know about the passion and warrior spirit of Harris’ journey.

Dr. Brenda M. Greene is Professor of English, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Black Literature, and Senior Special Assistant to the Provost at Medgar Evers College, CUNY.