By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Mayor Cory Booker told a packed audience at Rider University that he has the job of his dreams — to serve as the mayor of Newark, which is one of New Jersey’s major cities, and the chance to try to make the ideals of the United States “real” for everyone else.
And where does that excitement originate? From the stories that his parents told him and his brother about their own youth — particularly his father’s childhood that was spent in the mountains of North Carolina, Mayor Booker said Tuesday night.
The theme of democracy runs through those stories, Mayor Booker said. His parents feel blessed to be part of this nation, in which every generation has a chance to improve. His father was born into a single-parent household, and then his grandmother helped to raise him — like many children in Newark, the mayor said.
But the difference is that people in the North Carolina community where his father grew up were intent on helping him, Mayor Booker said. They would not let him fail, and when it was time for him to go to college, they collected money to send him to North Carolina Central State University.
Mayor Booker recalled that he was invited to speak at his mother’s alma mater, Fisk University. It was the 50th anniversary of her graduation, and she took him by the hand and introduced him to many people at a “fancy dinner” at the college. She told him about their accomplishments, and reminded him that these were the people who “struggled and fought for you.”
When his parents sought jobs after college graduation, there were many people — blacks and whites — who interceded on their behalf to help them find work, Mayor Booker said. His parents were among the first black executives to work at IBM.
Mayor Booker’s parents faced discrimination again when they moved to New Jersey and tried to buy a house. As soon as a Realtor figured out that the couple was black, they were told that the house had been taken off the real estate market. But again, blacks and whites came to their aid and they bought a house, he said.
”We are one generation away from poverty, one generation away from segregation,” said Mayor Booker, who grew up in Bergen County. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University and a master’s degree from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He graduated from Yale Law School.
All the while, his father would remind him not to sit back and to use his privilege to help others — to be “part of the conspiracy of love,” Mayor Booker said. Quoting the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, the mayor said, “change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability.”
”You need active engagement. What frustrates me is that so many of us think that democracy is a spectator sport and that we can sit on the sidelines and give color commentary about what’s going on,” Mayor Booker said. Then, there is “sedentary agitation” — getting upset about issues, but doing nothing about it, he said.
Quoting President Abraham Lincoln, who said that all people are born original and die a copy, Mayor Booker urged the students to pursue the dreams they have for themselves — with “courage, alacrity and enthusiasm.” They need to “show up in the world,” and not shrink from who they are, he said.
”I had to learn that lesson over again,” Mayor Booker said.
He told the students that he lived in Brick Towers in Newark, which was owned by a landlord and that was eventually taken over by the City of Newark’s Housing Authority. He said he saw a group of young boys who would hang out in the apartment building’s lobby.
The boys grew into adolescents, and he began to smell the odor of marijuana in the lobby. The boys began to “show” their gang colors and sold drugs. He said he tried to help the boys, but then he became involved in politics — running for City Council and running for mayor.
Mayor Booker won his second quest for the mayorship in 2006 — he was defeated in his first try — and launched a crackdown on crime. He would ride the streets of Newark with his security detail and stop to talk to the residents. “This is not who we are,” he would tell them, adding that sometimes he felt like a clergyman.
One night, Mayor Booker stopped at the scene of a shooting and saw a body on the ground. It was one of the boys that he used to talk to in the lobby of the Brick Towers apartment building, he said, adding, “I walked past him every day.” He could have tried to help the boy, who had the potential to be a leader or anything he wanted to be.
Mayor Booker said he attended the boy’s funeral, along with the teenager’s teachers, family and friends, noting that “every one of us showed up for his death, but where were we for his life.” The mayor said he had to leave the funeral because he was fighting the demons within himself. He went back to his office and broke down in tears.
”That was the beginning of my mayorship,” he said.
The United States is not a nation with a Declaration of Independence, Mayor Booker said. It is a nation with a declaration of interdependence, he said, adding that “I want to live up the goodness and mercy that got me here today.”
Mayor Booker said that courage is not running into a burning building, referring to the time that he ran into a house that was on fire to rescue its resident. Courage is accepting the conditions as they are and then trying to change them, he said.
”You only have the right to complain if you have the heart to help,” the mayor said.
Wrapping up, Mayor Booker listed some of the accomplishments since he took over Newark’s top elected job. He pointed to programs that help recently released convicts enter back into society, including teaching them how to be better fathers.
Mayor Booker also pointed to the economic development, both residential and commercial, that has taken place in the last few years.
”I have hope unhinged. There is nothing we cannot do in America. It is in our DNA,” Mayor Booker said.

