2021 Kamala Harris Inaugural: A Multi-faith Celebration

The featured commemorative cover (59th Presidential Inauguration, Washington DC, 20th January 2021) celebrates the first woman to be elected to the Office of Vice President of United States. Kamala Devi Harris, former US Senator from California, and former Attorney General of California is also the first African American and first Asian American to be elected Vice President. She is also the first US Vice President with both parents who were foreign-born. Until today, Andrew Jackson is the only US President with two foreign-born parents (Northern Ireland). The stamps used on the covers celebrate Kamala Harris' multi-faith and multi-cultural heritage, spawning hope for the rest of humanity.
Kamala Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in Madras (present-day Chennai), India. Her father, Donald Harris, was born in Brown's Town (St. Ann Parish), Jamaica. Both her parents were born in 1938, when their home countries were British colonies. In 1962, Kamala’s parents met for the first time at a meeting of the Afro American Association, a students' group at Berkeley- whose members would go on to give structure to the discipline of Black studies, propose the holiday of Kwanzaa, and help establish the Black Panther Party. Her mother received a PhD in Nutrition and Endocrinology from UC Berkeley in 1964 and her father received a PhD in Economics from UC Berkeley in 1966.
The cachet of this cover depicts landmarks from Madras (left): San Tome Cathedral, built in 1522 by the Portuguese over the tomb of Saint Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus; Madras High Court, the second oldest High Court of India, an exquisite example of Indo-Saracenic style of architecture built by the British in 1888; Mylapore Kapaleeshwara Temple, a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva built in the 7th century CE during the Pallava dynasty; and Valluvar Kottam, a monument dedicated to classical Tamil poet philosopher Valluvar. To the right are landmarks from Jamaica: Fort Charles (1655); Spanish Town Emancipation Square (1762); Ward Theatre (1912) at the site of a theater since the 1770s; and the Bob Marley Memorial (1981). In the middle is Oakland California, Kamala Harris’ hometown.