Cory Booker talks about the black women who have played the biggest roles in his life

Black women told you all this in 2016 and we are going to do it again in 2020 – the Black woman’s voice is crucial.

Fortunately, 2020 presidential candidates like Cory Booker recognize and understand the importance of the role Black women have played and can proceed to play in changing the country for the higher.

“Well, first of all, black women make up the largest percentage of voters,” says New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker. “They went out and voted at rates that we don’t see in any other demographic….”

In fact, in 2012, over 70% of Black women voted, voted by white women (65.6%), white men (62.6%), and black men (61.4%). Available baseline data from the 2016 Democratic primary shows that black women proceed to make up a bigger share of the Democratic electorate than black men.

For Booker, whose awesomeness is inspired by black women, this shouldn’t be a threat but a ray of hope for the future. In fact, it is a blessing because he realizes that his upbringing had an enormous influence.

Senator Cory Booker credits today’s man with his mother, but there may be one other woman in his life who shares that responsibility.

“I always say I got my BA at Stanford and my PhD on the streets of Newark,” he shared with podcast hosts Cori Murray and Charli Penn. “I met a woman named Virginia Jones, who I just mentioned at this amazing 25th Essence Fest, and she basically said, ‘Look around the neighborhood and tell me what you see.’ And I said, “OK, I see crack house, I see…” and I just described these projects. And she said, “Well, you could never help me,” and I said, “What do you mean?” He says, “The world you see outside is a reflection of what you have inside.” If you simply see problems in darkness and despair, that is all there’ll ever be, but in the event you are stubborn and each time you open your eyes you see love, you see the face of God, beauty, then you definately will help me.’”

The words of wisdom he received from her didn’t end there. The long-term relationship lasted over five years and proved to be very transformative in shaping Booker into the man he’s today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJaBL1ZmrnQ

“She never [mistook] wealth for value,” Booker concluded. “She knew the potential. So if I took you around the city in the Nineties and now in 2019, you’d see how successful Black women-owned businesses are in my community. You would see latest parks, you’d see latest high schools, you’d see latest housing; and folks at all times tell me, “Oh, you should be proud of what you did as mayor.” I say, “No, we see it now because people like Mrs. Jones saw it then.” They never gave up on their community. There was a defiant love between them and that is why I still live there, if I would like to boil it all the way down to one, it’s why I didn’t think I’d get entangled in politics. It was Mrs. Jones who forced me and an entire bunch of tent leaders told me to run for city council.

Needless to say, Booker is committed to black women. He is influenced not only by the black women in his life, but in addition by those who got here before.

“Well, I mean, my icon, who has had a charter on every desk I’ve ever had, from City Hall to the US Capitol, is Harriet Tubman,” he tells Cori and Charli. “She’s like my model, because if she died, we wouldn’t know who she was unless someone at the end of her life interviewed her or wrote a book about her.”

For more on the exclusive conversation with Senator Booker, watch the clip above.