Kamala Harris Redecorates White House Office with Civil Rights Era Art

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, (unseen
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Wendell Husebø

Vice President Kamala Harris in recent days has reset her White House office with civil rights era art, new couches, and wall paint.

Upon reports of tremendous infighting among staffers and claims the vice president is an abusive boss, Harris has put time into overhauling her office with new decorations that speak to a fresh start.

“The room is warmer, painted a light shade of blue, and the patterned couches have been swapped for a nearly white set,” San Francisco Chronicle analyzed.

But it was the civil rights act, the establishment media publication noted, that spoke “the loudest” to how “she differs from the 48 men who held the role before her.”

The Chronicle framed Harris as “the first woman, woman of color, Black woman and first graduate of a historically Black university or college to be vice president.” However, no mention was made of Harris’s responsibility of the southern border crisis still raging 11 months into her vice presidency.

The Chronicle depicted Harris’ artistic choices as picks from “ground-breaking” artists that harken back to her history with Howard University and the Civil Rights era:

Behind her desk hangs an abstract painting on loan from the Smithsonian, “White Daisies Rhapsody” by Alama Woodsey Thomas in a lively green, blue and yellow. Thomas was the first graduate of Howard’s fine arts program, also Harris’ alma mater, and a ground-breaking Black artist. A piece of hers, “Resurrection,” was the first work by a Black woman to be displayed in the White House collection in 2014, according to information provided by Harris’ office.

To the right of her desk hangs a striking black and white portrait of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice who as an attorney won the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education desegregating schools. It’s positioned in a way that looks almost as if Marshall is looking over Harris’ shoulder when she works.

The painting is on loan from Howard University Gallery and by artist Eddie Fontno, also an alumnus of Howard. Harris has long paid homage to Marshall, keeping a bust of him in her Senate office and at her more-photographed ceremonial office across the street from the White House in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Harris’s new office decorations come after months of backstabbing leaks from angry staffers within her office. Due to the reported office disfunction, four staffers have announced they have left or will leave before the end of the year.

Harris has been defended by some who suggest the vice president has been a victim of media scrutiny because of her Jamaican and Indian heritage.

“There’s just a different level of scrutiny and a different level of coverage,” the source told Politico. “That goes back to the original discussion about how the team can construct the office in a way that helps meet those demands of the press corps in this press environment.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø

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