Some Kossacks have been critical and 'annoyed' by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, but when he received the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award on the campus of Harvard University yesterday, he talked about the images his parents had ingrained in him.
Cary and Carolyn Booker -- civil rights activists and volunteers for the Urban League -- were among the first African-American executives at IBM. Raising Cory and his brother Cary in Harrington Park, N.J., the Bookers filled the house with inspirational tributes to "great men and women," including a bust of President Kennedy that sat within sight of the dining table.
"I would be sitting there eating my eggs in the morning, looking up, and seeing John F. Kennedy for the first 18 years of my life," he said.
Cory would head west out of high school, landing at Stanford University, where he'd play football, excel academically, serve as a class officer, oversee a student crisis hotline and organize an alliance between area youth and Stanford students.
He graduated with honors and earned a Rhodes Scholarship before heading to Yale University to claim a law degree. Cory offered free legal clinics for those who couldn't afford them and served the Black Law Students Association. He also found time to be a Big Brother.
In 1998 he won a spot on the Newark City Council and moved into a crime-plagued housing project in a effort to better understand and aid his ailing community. He stayed for eight years.
When he ran for mayor in 2006, he promised to address the city's notorious reputation by increasing the size of the police force to combat the runaway drug and gang infestations. Fearing that he wasn't simply full of bluster, the leader of the New Jersey Bloods called for his assassination. That didn't stop Booker from chasing down a robber on his inauguration day.
Under constant surveillance and protection following his election, Booker set out to transform Newark, putting former offenders to work, making the city safer, improving services and initiating a variety of youth programs. The murder rate, skyrocketing in other cities, has dropped significantly in Newark and his administration is uniquely open and available to city residents.
He engaged the lawyers who worked on his campaign to help him transform the city and that group now provides pro bono services designed to create productive options and eliminate barriers for those recently released from prison.
Cory's brother Cary is an Associate Dean at the Newark branch of the Rutgers University system, where he runs the school's minority and disadvantaged student outreach program.
A kid would do well if each day he ate his morning cereal under a poster of Cory Booker.