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Newark mayor Cory Booker to speak at graduation
by Mike Prada
Editor in Chief
News | 4/21/09
Posted online at 8:49 PM EST on 4/27/09
/ Last updated at 8:59 AM EST on 4/27/09
Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J. since 2006, will be the keynote speaker at the University's 58th commencement ceremony May 17, according to an April 27 University press release.
Booker was elected mayor of Newark in 2006. He inherited a city that had nearly one-third of its residents living below the poverty line, according to Booker's Web site. Since the beginning of his term, Newark's murder rate dropped 40 percent in 2008, according to the University press release.
"[Booker] is an excellent role model for students, both in terms of civic activism [and] social justice," said John Hose, executive assistant to University President Jehuda Reinharz. "Particulary, his commitment to public service and social justice are values Brandeis prizes."
Booker is a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Yale University Law School who elected to return to Newark, a city that has struggled since the 1967's riots, a five-day uprising that killed 26 people. He became the youngest-ever member of the Newark municipal council when he was elected in 1998 at age 29, according to the press release.
Upon moving back to Newark and being elected a member of the Newark municipal council, Booker decided to live in the Brick Towers public housing projects in an attempt to bring attention to the lack of services available to tenants. He lived there until 2006, when the Newark Housing Authority bulldozed the worn-down facility as part of a move by the NHA to rebuild the city's high-rise projects as town house-style developments, according to a 2006 article in The New York Times.
Booker then moved into a new $1,200-a-month development in a stretch of Newark's South Ward that features boarded-up homes and prevalent drug trade, according to the article.
In 1999, as a member of the municipal council, Booker spent 10 days undergoing a hunger strike in a tent outside the Garden Spires projects, in an attempt to pressure city authorities to address the drug trade that was occurring near the projects. His actions led to the mayor deciding to add more police patrols and build a park in the area.
Booker was elected mayor of Newark in 2006. He inherited a city that had nearly one-third of its residents living below the poverty line, according to Booker's Web site. Since the beginning of his term, Newark's murder rate dropped 40 percent in 2008, according to the University press release.
"[Booker] is an excellent role model for students, both in terms of civic activism [and] social justice," said John Hose, executive assistant to University President Jehuda Reinharz. "Particulary, his commitment to public service and social justice are values Brandeis prizes."
Booker is a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Yale University Law School who elected to return to Newark, a city that has struggled since the 1967's riots, a five-day uprising that killed 26 people. He became the youngest-ever member of the Newark municipal council when he was elected in 1998 at age 29, according to the press release.
Upon moving back to Newark and being elected a member of the Newark municipal council, Booker decided to live in the Brick Towers public housing projects in an attempt to bring attention to the lack of services available to tenants. He lived there until 2006, when the Newark Housing Authority bulldozed the worn-down facility as part of a move by the NHA to rebuild the city's high-rise projects as town house-style developments, according to a 2006 article in The New York Times.
Booker then moved into a new $1,200-a-month development in a stretch of Newark's South Ward that features boarded-up homes and prevalent drug trade, according to the article.
In 1999, as a member of the municipal council, Booker spent 10 days undergoing a hunger strike in a tent outside the Garden Spires projects, in an attempt to pressure city authorities to address the drug trade that was occurring near the projects. His actions led to the mayor deciding to add more police patrols and build a park in the area.
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