The mayor of Newark, N.J. will speak to students as part of a College Democrats event April 15.

Cory Booker is the third African American elected to Newark’s highest office in 2006 and is a potential Democratic candidate for the state’s governorship in 2013.

Booker has gained a national reputation for fighting racial injustice and economic inequality in Newark. In 1999, Booker went on a 10-day hunger strike while living in the one of Newark’s must drug-afflicted wards in the Brick Towers apartment complex.

He was named as a TIME 100 most influential people in the world in 2011.

Booker will speak  at the Jack Morton Auditorium from 8 to 9 p.m.