I believe Newark can be a paradise … but
how we get there depends on our will.
M.William Howard Jr. May 25, 2006

It’s done. Booker won.

Every political body employs a transition team teader at this juncture. Mayor Sharpe James appointed savvy Gustave Heningburg of Greater Newark Urban Coalition to head his group in 1986. The actual count of NIT membership is in the hundreds, but there is a smaller group of honorary chairs and chairs, including former Newark mayoral hopeful David Blount and Marc Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans and the current president and CEO of the National Urban League, who will act as advisors.

The leader of this pack is Moses William Howard Jr., the 60-year-old whose job it is to pass the blazing political torch from the hands of 71-year-old Sharpe James to 37-year-old Cory Booker without scorching a soul. What is significant about this leader is his regular job title. Reverend. He is the first pastor in the history of contemporary A.A. (After Addonizio) Newark politics to serve as Transition Team Leader.

M. William Howard Jr., Georgia native and former Dean of New York Theological Seminary, is the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Newark’s Central Ward. He transformed Bethany Christian Academy into University Heights Charter School with a mandate for “character building” education. This summer Bethany hosts a literature-rich Freedom School, fashioned after African Freedom Schools of the Civil Rights Movement. Howard led Bethany to adopt the Essex Residential Community Home (ERCH), and Uth Turn, a program through which male ERCH residents can turn their lives around. Howard says of himself “I am a hope salesman. I sell hope. I want to look into the very belly of defeat and see victory.”

How did this salesman get the job, what does he hope to do with it, and what implications, if any, does the appointment have to Newark? The Positive Community asked Rev. Howard to discuss his relationship with Cory Booker and some of the issues he will confront as mayor.

Booker

Bethany parishioner Mildred Crump, current Councilwoman-at-Large hopeful (as of this writing) introduced Booker to him. Howard says “The work that we (Bethany) have been doing with so-called at-risk population caught Cory Booker’s eye… Booker has a well developed interior and doesn’t bend toward the expedient; he recognizes the indispensability of spiritual grounding … I think one of the things as he explained it to me, what led him to think about me, was that I had had broad experience in all kinds of faith groups and had interacted with people of all kinds of orientation. We understand the centrality of the moral core, of the spiritual core.

“The Star-Ledger printed that I was reluctant to agree to be chairman. I would say I was deliberate. But one thing I had confidence in was the moral compass of Cory Booker.

“When Cory Booker came to me he said, “Look. You’re busy. I’m busy. I have two requests. Will you share this Transition Chair with me? I want you to be available to pray with me throughout the whole campaign for the duration of my service. I want to be able to call you up and we gather, just the two of us, if necessary, to pray and reflect on matters of faith.

Continues Howard, “As long as a person believes that there is a reality not seen (the tenets of faith), I’m already predisposed to trusting them and following their thinking and their commitment, because I believe, I’m a Christian. I think we have a person who begins his time in this office with that conviction. I believe, like Lincoln (President Lincoln) that we don’t know the measure of a person so much by how they deal with adversity as how they deal with power. ‘Iwant to be sure,’ Booker said to me, ‘that I can meet with you to test whether I’m being changed by power.’ All of these are signs of hope.

City Services

“It is Cory Booker’s intent, as I hear him speak about this, to not only deliver, graphically and efficiently, city services, but to begin to cultivate an expectation among the citizens for that to happen. There is going to be a business approach to the management of city government so that it becomes a well-run business with the citizens of Newark being its customers.

Quality of Life
I think we are going to have an example set in City Hall of a certain kind of image of leaders that is going to help, and this is not to say anything negative about current leadership, but I dare say that young people setting an example, living in a certain image, there will be some humane policing, policies; I think it’s a mixture of things. I don’t know what Booker can do about it, but I know it’s on his radar screen. He’s interested, he’s interested in making the City hospitable to all people

“I think he understands that job creation, economic development, assistance for young parents all of these kinds of things must go together, in fact … the proliferation of gang affiliation, in my opinion, is a reflection on the deterioration of family life, and what are the ingredients for the deterioration of family life apart from drug use and that kind of thing ? It is the lack of employment, the lack of training, the lack of socialization for work. So I think that you will find a group of the next generation of leaders who have the propensity to address these things in a comprehensive way, but also the intellectual capital and the outreach and connections to others who can help move us in this direction.

New Administration

“I think you are looking at young folk that we reared, after all, and that we hoped for, after all, who are data driven, who are very interested in best practices. They consult broadly, they dialogue among each other, and I think that this whole openness and dialogue and filtering of data will avail to them the wisdom and experience of the people of the city. So, they are going to capitalize on this and grow.

The future of Newark

“I believe Newark can be a paradise; a livable, hospitable city for all of its residents and for all who will come … but how we get there depends on our will.”

What Do People Think ?

So historical is the event and so meaningful the Transition Team Leader appointment, that everyone has an opinion; former Newarkers and Newarkers alike, the religious, the academic, and the ordinary, drylongso folk among us. Della Ancrum, former Rutgers-Newark employee, beams from her Trenton, North Carolina retirement home: “Nice indeed to hear the good news about Cory Booker. Hopefully he will make Newark the kind of place it should be for all.” Joyce Smith Carter, youth services advocate with QUEST/Catholic Youth Organization, Newark resident and homeowner examines NIT. “I think Rev. Howard was an excellent choice as Transition Team Leader. He is compassionate, has vision, is balanced, has intellect, and is open … Other members appointed to the team have been distant from the city for eight to ten years and may not have a sense of where we need to go in the here and now, specifically Hubert Williams or Bo Kemp … So, of the team David Blount, Mark Morial, and Rev. Howard were good choices.” And, Dr. Manning Marable, Director, Center for Contemporary Black History at Columbia University, puts all in national historical perspective. “There has been a long tradition of political leadership and advocacy by African-American clergy which goes back to Reconstruction, 150 years ago. Blacks in most states were denied their right to vote from the late 19th century until the early 1960s. Consequently, the African-American clergy became the major advocacy group promoting public affairs issues for Blacks. Mayor Booker’s selection of Rev. Howard may be recognition of the central role faith-based institutions have in public policy advocacy within the Black community.”