Gus Newport

“I’m lucky for what my grandmother instilled in me: Don’t think you know it all

- Marian Wright Edelman

Learn something new every day. I learned it by engaging with people and having an analysis and understanding of the integrated role that can be played by communities, universities, government, and all kinds of people. We don’t live in a community that has reached its limit as to what’s best.”

Gus Newport, who passed away in June, was a warrior for social justice, equality, and peace who spent his life pushing local, national, and international communities to get closer to “best.” He was a two-term mayor of Berkeley, California, a friend and colleague of Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Harry Belafonte, Angela Davis, Danny Glover, and Bernie Sanders, an honorary member of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress, a member of the advisory board of the U.S. Conference on Apartheid, co-chair of the U.S. Peace Council, a vice president of the World Peace Council, and a master of community development in every sense of the term. He was also a friend of the Children’s Defense Fund and a beloved presence and leader in intergenerational dialogues at CDF’s annual Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry, where he will be missed by those gathering this week. He loved CDF’s Haley Farm and its spirit of allowing people to experience the beloved community Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned.