Kamala Harris accused of having 'lifted' anecdote from MLK in childhood 'fweedom' story

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris told Elle magazine a story about attending a civil rights march as a child that bears a striking resemblance to one told decades earlier by civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

Harris has often spoken of her parents' efforts in the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The profile, published at the height of the 2020 presidential election campaign in early October, tells how the vice president-elect accompanied them as a toddler to a march in Oakland, California.

"Senator Kamala Harris started her life’s work young," journalist Ashley Ford wrote. "She laughs from her gut, the way you would with family, as she remembers being wheeled through an Oakland, California, civil rights march in a stroller with no straps with her parents and her uncle. At some point, she fell from the stroller (few safety regulations existed for children’s equipment back then), and the adults, caught up in the rapture of protest, just kept on marching. By the time they noticed little Kamala was gone and doubled back, she was understandably upset."

“My mother tells the story about how I’m fussing,” Harris said. “And she’s like, ‘Baby, what do you want? What do you need?’ And I just looked at her and I said, ‘Fweedom.’”