Messenger - Vol. 1, No. 3, Page 6 Spring 1992 Staying Power All it took was one telephone call to the Wilmington office of the NAACP, and the word was out. "Hi. We're doing an article about Keith Booker and we were wondering if you could put us in touch with some of the people he works with, so that we can get a more complete picture of him." "Yes," the secretary said, "but we're a volunteer organization and we don't give out our members' telephone numbers. But I can ask a few people to call you." Within half an hour, the telephones were ringing. Everyone it seems has something to say about Keith Booker, Delaware '78, and all of it is good. Booker has been working in his hometown community since his graduation, as the director of community services for crisis elimination and community development at the Kingswood Community Center in Wilmington's northeast section and, more recently, also as president of the city's NAACP. "He really has something special going on," says Samuel Guy, state president of the NAACP. "He took the Wilmington branch from a marginally effective branch to one of the top branches in the country, one recently recognized by the national organization. His involvement in redistricting, voter registration and voter participation-his drive for political empowerment of the minority community-will be his legacy," Guy says. "He's done an awful lot for the community," Donna Bond, housing chair of the Wilmington branch, says. "I am amazed at his leadership. To be so young, strong, wise and caring. He is the kind of person who gives more than he gets." "We have better cooperation between elected officials and minorities because of him," Umar Hassan-El, political action chair of the NAACP says. "He is deeply spiritual, energetic and couragous. He's the one who graduated from college, got a job in the community and stayed." Booker didn't intend to devote his life to community service, but once he started he just didn't stop. He initially intended to go to law school after earning a joint bachelor's degree in political science and American history, But it had taken the combined financial resources of his mother and several brothers to get him through college, and he decided that before pursuing more education, he wanted a chance to "give something back." "I started to look at the various communities in Wilmington to see where there was the greatest need," he says. "I planned to stay three to five years and then go to law school, but I just got caught up. I saw that most people who came to help the community stayed a couple of years and were gone. That depletes people's faith. I decided someone had to stay and be involved." Booker became that someone, and he has been on the job for nearly 12 years. At the Kingswood Community Center, he helps people with emergency needs like food, housing, clothing and fuel. He's worked with civic associations, tenants' councils and anti-drug groups. And he sees his volunteer work with the NAACP as an opportunity to continue helping people in need. "Our social service agencies are overwhelmed with the needs of their clients. The NAACP could be pro-active and maybe reach people before the problems begin," he says. Booker says that he loves politics, a passion he developed early in life. "I can remember, back when I was 5, taking lunch over to my Mother when she worked at the polls. If her party was in power, she got a catered lunch. If they weren't in power, my brothers and I took her lunch over in a bag. I realized early on what political power can do. "One of the major problems in the African-American community is a lack of any real political power. Only 25 percent of our eligible voters (in Wilmington) are registered, and only about 15 percent of those registered vote. That leads to a lack of response from a government that could be making resources available." Booker's remedy is a massive voter registration drive reminiscent of those held in the l960s. It was quite a coup for the local NAACP to have the Rev. Jesse Jackson in town earlier this year, encouraging black Wilmingtonians to register to vote. "Jackson's presence drove home the message that minorities need to pay greater attention to voting," Booker says. "To have him kick off our campaign drive really got the people's ear, really gave us some attention. "The most important thing we can do is to show minorities that their vote does make a difference. Lots of us thought we won victories in the '60s and were lulled to sleep in the '70s and '80s. We thought Dr. King's dream had been realized but it hasn't been. It's true that there is a new black middle class and there are many more blacks with college educations, but our lower class is worse off now than we were as a whole in the '60s. "That's why we've chosen as our theme one with a biblical basis-'If my brother's in trouble, so am I.' We're saying you can't be satisfied if you're doing well and your brother is suffering." Booker's aggressive campaign, "Project 10,000," aims to register l0,000 new voters in the city of Wilmington. "For many people, registering to vote is the first step in regaining their lost self-esteem," he says. "When I came to Kingswood in l980, it was an election year. They use this as a polling place and not even l00 people came out to vote. In l984, we succeeded in getting close to 500 people out. In l988, we had over l,000 people voting here. It was the first time a politician had ever visited the community, and the first time anyone had put up a billboard down here. Candidates started listening. They're not addressing issues yet, but they are listening. "I tell people it's gonna take time, but they're gonna know you're here." -Beth Thomas