Cory Booker

69th Annual Peabody Awards - Arrivals

Booker in 2010, photo by prphotos

Birth Name: Cory Anthony Booker

Place of Birth: Washington, D.C., U.S.

Date of Birth: April 27, 1969

Ethnicity: African-American, some English, small amount of Native American, distant German and Irish

Cory Booker is an American politician, attorney, and author. A member of the Democratic Party, he has served as a United States Senator from New Jersey, since October 31, 2013. He was previously the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, from July 1, 2006 to October 31, 2013.

He was a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 2020.

Cory is the son of Carolyn Rose (Jordan) and Cary Alfred Booker, who were executives at IMB. Cory’s parents are/were both black, as were all of his grandparents. One of Cory’s maternal great-grandfathers, Stephen Henry Brown, was white. Cory was raised in Harrington Park, New Jersey.

In his book, United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good, 2017, page 12, Corey wrote:

I am descended from slaves and slave owners. I have Native American blood and am also the great-great-great grandson of a white man who fought in the Creek War of 1836, in which Native Americans were forcibly removed from their land. I am the great-great-grandson of many slaves, and I am also the great-great-grandson of a corporal who fought in the Confederate Army and was captured by Union troops.

Cory’s paternal grandfather was Wathia Clarence “W. C.” Allen (the son of Charlie A. Allen and Elizabeth Leonard). Wathia was born in North Carolina.

Cory’s paternal grandmother was Jessie/Jesse Lucille Booker (the daughter of Franklin “Frank” Booker and Mary Willie). Jesse was born in Kentucky or Tennessee. Franklin was the son of Harrison Booker. Mary was the daughter of Albert Christopher.

Cory’s maternal grandfather was Limuary Alja Jordan (the biological son of Stephen Henry Brown and Alzinia/Alzenia Collins). Limuary was born in Louisiana. Stephen was the son of Fielding Brown and Eliza Jane Hair. Alzinia was the daughter of Winsor G. Collins and Mary Belle Smith.

Cory’s maternal grandmother was named Adeline Nadine Wilson (the daughter of Joseph N./M. Wilson and Rosa E.). Adeline was born in Iowa. Joseph was the son of Byrd Wilson, Jr. and Roberta Scott.

A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2012) stated that Cory’s genetic ancestry is:

*47% African
*45% European
*7% Native American

Part of his African DNA matches Sierra Leonean ancestry.

The show’s DNA matching showed Cory to have a close genetic connection to entertainer RuPaul.

Sources: Genealogy of Cory Booker – http://www.geni.com

Obituary of Cory’s father – https://www.forevermissed.com

Cory’s paternal grandfather, Wathia Clarence Allen, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org

52 Responses

  1. Multiethnicchick says:

    This is so stupid. What is it with Americans and their fear of calling someone mixed race. Idiots wonder why racism still exists. This man is mostly nonblack and pretty much as Europeans as he is black African.

    • Surreal says:

      African American is an ethnic group. It’s the name for people who descend from the black African people that were taken from Africa and brought to the United States during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Is is not a descendant of those people? Yes he is. Are both his parents African American? Yes, they are. He’s African American. But are so hung up over our ethnic group, trying to tell us what we are and where we come from. Y’all need to worry about yourselves. African American isn’t a race, it’s an ethnicity. Learn there difference between the two. Just like Igbo isn’t a race, it’s a ethnic group from Nigeria. African American is an ethnic group created in America made up of people from a specific heritage and culture of their own. Get over it.

      • Surreal says:

        Almost all African Americans have non-African admixture. That comes with being African American. I don’t see y’all on a Mexican’s page talking about, “Why you just put Mexican?! He mixed, he mixed!” No, you accept their ethnicity as Mexican. Even though technically, most Mexicans are around 60% European and 40% Native American. Or what about Dominicans? Y’all are okay with just calling them Dominican. You’re not gonna be on a Dominican’s page going “They mixed, they mixed!” When the average Dominican is 60% European, 35% African, and 5% Native American. You ain’t worried about having all that listed. Dominican is enough. Same for the Puerto Ricans and the Cubans and the Jamaicans. Other people can just be called by their ethnic group, but when it comes to African Americans, then there’s a problem, huh?

        • Ava900 says:

          @Surreal Why are you saying he What’s his African American without knowing what he identifies as? determines ethnicity is subjective. And if someone is mixed then it depends on what they identify as. If someone identifies with their European ancestry over African then their ethnicity is European not African-American.

        • Ava900 says:

          *I meant why are you saying he is African-American *

        • LoLo A says:

          Mexico is a country of different races. Cuba is a country in the same manner. Africa America isn’t a place. If we are going to accept ethnicity, then Corey is American. (African American is a dumping ground term for anyone part Black and that’s wrong. White people shouldn’t get to be “pure” and separate. Corey genetically is African and European American, no matter how much people want to ignore or deny one or the other. Genetics don’t lie.) Just because people got used to incorrect labels, based on racist mindsets, doesn’t make them correct in modern times.

          Africa is also a country of different races. You can’t accurately compare AAs to all Africans, to make conclusions on phenotypes. East Africans are especially tricky to racially label because of mixtures with the middle east, Europe, and Asia. And, some peoples have ancestry that was a reverse migration, where they left Africa, went to Europe, then came back. Look up the details of the great migration.

          But if you are gonna make racial comparisons with Americans who have African ancestry, get it right. The slaves who came to the Americas were mostly West Africans. Compare Corey to those people, the unmixed ones, and see how he truly looks mixed in comparison.

          • stuckinfoopid says:

            You simply don’t know what an ethnicity is. Ethnicities are people who share mutual historic, geographic and cultural identification. Shared genetic heritage tends to accompany shared geography and history. African Americans are under no obligation to be pure-blooded or look like West Africans of 300 years ago, otherwise, they’d call themselves things like, Ashanti, Yoruba, Wolof, etc. Google the word, “ethnogenesis.” Being mixed is not an ethnicity because, “Our parents had sex.” isn’t a historically, culturally, or geographically significant fact.

            What you’re doing is inventing a contrived idea of an, “American,” ethnicity that you wish existed and trying to put people into that don’t share the same history based on a wrongheaded belief in biological races. A European American is not the same ethnicity as an African American even though they have the same nationality because their historicity is divergent.

      • Ava900 says:

        @Surreal Just because you are an American and you have African ancestry doesn’t mean you are African-American. If he identifies with his other ancestors then he is not apart of the African American ethnicity. So it depends on what people identify as.

    • midori29 says:

      @multiethnicchick you are misinformed and very uneducated about race. Just because someone is light skinned it does not make them mixed and non black. Your definition of race us very racist. All blacks aren’t super dark. Also this site does the opposite it mixes up everyone too much. This is a black man. Black does not mean 100 percent African in American a d the Carribean. Black means majority African DNA. Read this again. Cory’s parents, Carolyn Rose (Jordan) and Cary Alfred Booker, are/were both black. One of Cory’s maternal great-grandfathers, Stephen Henry Brown, was white. This site is full of ignorant racists.

      • Multiethnicchick says:

        His ancestry literally says he’s over 40% European. You’re just a one drop rule toting idiot promoting white purity. This man is mixed race, get over it. Black means being mostly black. This guy is less than 50% black.

        • Ava900 says:

          @multiethnicchic Just because someone has a majority African percentage that doesn’t mean they are Black. I’m 86% African and 14% European and I’m definitely Italian since my great-great-great-great grandfather was a Italian

      • Ava900 says:

        @Midori29 Just because you have a majority African percentage that doesn’t mean you are Black. If Cory identifies with White great-great grandfather then he is European not Black/African-American. Black is not a identity as well. For example my results says 85% African and 15% African and my great-great-great grandfather was a Italian and I’m definitely Italian/Mediterranean since I only identify with my Italian ancestry.

  2. cdonorab says:

    Correction. He also has Irish through his Canady ancestry and German though his Hair ancestry. Henry Hair who was Stephen Brown’s grandfather had a father born in Germany and Eliza Canadys ancestry can be traced to a John Kennedy and his wife born in the 1700s in Ireland.

    • midori29 says:

      Tracing someone back to the 1700s and calling them majority Irish is the very definition of madness. Most blacks in America and the Carribean have Irish DNA. Mixed people on this site are insane. I have Irish DNA, I’m black. There were Irish slaves in America and the Carribean. The British forced Irish slave women to mix with African slave men.

      • Ava900 says:

        @midori29 Why do you keep associating him with African history of he identifies with his Irish ancestry? You are whatever you identify as. Black isn’t a ethnicity or identity. Someone 99% African and 1% Irish can be just Irish, and someone 99% European can be African American

  3. bleachsoda says:

    some? LOL

  4. xoxo says:

    He has more than “SOME” English.

    • midori29 says:

      @xoxo Why do you think he has more than some English ????? Because he is light skinned??? Not all black people are dark skinned. There are 100 percent unmixed black Africans with light skin.

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