Sharpe James

Sharpe James (born February 20, 1936 in Jacksonville, Florida) is the second African American Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. He is the 35th mayor of Newark. Prior to beginning his term as mayor, he was a professor of health sciences at Essex County College .

He earned a B.A. in education from Montclair State University and a M.A. in education from Springfield College. He received the 1961 Department of Physiology Award from that school, and later completed postgraduate studies at Washington State University, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. He also served with the U.S. Army in Europe. In 1988, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Montclair State University, and, in 1991, an Honorary Doctorate from Drew University.

Mayor James was first elected to public office in 1970 as South Ward Councilman. In June 1999, he was appointed to the State Senate to fill out the unexpired term of the late Senator Wynona Lipman , and won election to that seat the following November. He was re-elected for a full term in November 2001.

The only Civil Rights veteran still serving as Mayor in America, Sharpe James became Newark's longest-serving mayor when he was re-elected for an unprecedented fifth term in 2002, a year after being named New Jersey Conference of Mayors Mayor of the Year. First elected mayor of Newark on May 13, 1986, James was sworn into office on July 1 of that year. He was the first Newark mayor to run unopposed when he sought re-election in 1990 and handily won re-election in 1994, and 1998.

Sharpe James won distinction in his early years as mayor for often wearing jogging suits in public and making high-profile efforts to attract development to downtown. In 1997 Newark saw the completion of the acclaimed New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

In terms of housing, James' policy in the 1990s was to demolish Newark's massive, but mostly abandoned, housing projects, and replace them with small scale public housing or market rate middle class residences.

James, however, is a very controversial figure. In 2002 he made, as mayor of a medium sized city, $213,000 a year, a salary higher than any governor in the nation. He allows other Newark public officials to be similarly overcompensated. In 1997, James' chief of staff was convicted of bribery and his police chief was convicted of embezzlement.

James also presides over a government that collects less than 85 percent of the tax money owed it, and city that has higher crime and infant mortality rates than other similar cities in New Jersey. In the 1990s, a good decade for American cities, Newark still lost 20 percent of its tax base.

2002 was James' only close election. He was challenged by Cory Booker , a Central Ward councilman and former Stanford football star and Rhodes Scholar. Booker ran on a platform of focusing on the city away from downtown, community policing, and expanding after school programs.

Sharpe James ran on a platform of emphasizing his experience relative to the youthful Booker. His slogan was "the real deal. Unofficially, James ran on a platform of emphasizing his blackness and role in the civil rights struggle. James said, "[He] acts like us, talks like us, but is not us," and "You have to learn to be an African American, and we don't have time to train you."

James also privately said that Booker was "controlled by the Jews" and was a "faggot."

James won the 2002 election with 53 percent of the vote. Since then he has pursued an expensive arena for the Devils. He has also sought to punish gruops that supported Booker. He has denied applications for the New Community Corporation to receive federal funds.