Born in Washington D.C. and raised in northern New Jersey, Booker was a star high school athlete who received a football scholarship to Stanford. He then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar before earning his law degree from Yale. Following graduation, he moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he worked as a tenants’ rights lawyer before winning a seat on the City Council.
In 2006, Booker was elected mayor, and for more than seven years he was the public face of an American city that had gone decades with too little positive national attention and investment. In 2013, Booker became the first African American elected to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate.
In United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good, Booker draws on personal experience to issue a stirring call to reorient our nation and our politics around the principles of compassion and solidarity. The book is his account of his own political education, the moments—some entertaining, some heartbreaking, all of them enlightening—that have shaped his civic vision. He shares observations on the issues he cares about most deeply, from race and crime and the crisis of mass incarceration to economic and environmental justice.
Booker speaks of rising above despair to engage with hope, pursuing our shared mission, and embracing our common destiny. He makes the case that the virtues of empathy, responsibility, and action must guide our nation toward a brighter future. In conversation with the Honorable Julian Castro. Book signing to follow.
The speakers were introduced by Lisa Yochelson and Bradley Graham.
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