Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, N.J., and a Yale Law alum and Rhodes Scholar, will deliver the Joseph M. Bryan Distinguished Leadership Lecture at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 3. The event will be at the Carolina Theatre in downtown Greensboro.
Booker’s lecture will be titled “How to Change the World with Your Bare Hands.”
Booker has modeled a political career on his passion for community action. He was elected mayor in 2006 in a landslide contest, eight years after winning his first public office by upsetting a popular incumbent councilman. His reputation for unorthodox approaches to fighting drugs and crime are legendary in Newark – acts that include a 10-day hunger strike in 1999 in one of the city’s most drug-infested housing complexes, which led to an increased police presence and improved safety for residents. “Democracy is not a spectator sport,” Booker says. “It’s about rolling up your sleeves and getting to work. Change comes from good people coming together with collective struggles and doing something about it.”