The national media outlets covered Cory Booker, then Mayor of Newark, New Jersey when he announced that he would run for Senator Frank Lutenberg's seat. Booker won the special election and moved on to represent New Jersey in the U. S. Senate. There was much less media coverage when Ras Baraka won his race and became mayor of the state's largest city.
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| Ras Baraka |
Howard University educated Ras Baraka, son of the late militant poet and activist Amiri Baraka, started his political career twenty years ago. He was a community organizer, public school teacher, principal of Central High School and member of the Municipal Council of Newark since May 2010. Some say he was Cory Booker's chief antagonist. The forty four year old Mayor-elect begins the post Booker era facing a fiscal crisis that leaves the city in danger of being the subject of state monitoring.
Jobs, crime and education were leading issues in the campaign, as reported in the
New Yorker.
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| Imamu Amiri Baraka |
As reported in the New Yorker article, Mayor-elect Baraka began his victory remarks by thanking his father Imamu Amiri Baraka, who passed away in January at the age of 79. The elder Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones, was a poet and activist, founder of the Black Arts Movement and former New Jersey poet laureate. He was provocative and a ground breaking force in American culture. The FBI identified Amiri Baraka as "the person who will probably emerge as the leader of the Pan-African movement in the United States". They were "probably" right.
The Grio published an interesting portrait of the "tireless agitator" when reporting his death. his son wrote of him, calling him "A Black Fire".
No doubt history will remark on the deeds of father and son Baraka. People you should know.
