When three or more items are listed in a series, each item should be separated from the next with a comma. It is especially important to include the comma that precedes the conjunction and the last item in the series; this proper punctuation can prevent ambiguity and confusion in your sentence. For example:
Outside the White House, the streets were filled with flustered politicians, angry protesters and police.
The above sentence indicates that the police were angry as well as the protestors, which is probably not the writer's intention. A handy Oxford comma, also called a serial comma, would fix this problem in no time, and the sentence would instead read
Outside the White House, the streets were filled with flustered politicians, angry protesters, and police.
If you have trouble remembering the rule about commas and items in a series, this might help:
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