Eugene “Gus” Newport is a civil rights activist and the former mayor of Berkeley, California. Mr. Newport began his political career in his hometown of Rochester, New York in the 1960’s as chairman of the Monroe County Non-Partisan Political League, which focused on issues surrounding police brutality, workplace discrimination, and voter registration. He served as mayor of Berkeley from 1979 to 1986.
As an activist for nonviolence, Mr. Newport served as the Vice President from the United States to the World Peace Council from 1980 to 1986, and also served on the United Nations’ Committee Against Apartheid and Committee on the Question of Palestine. While serving as Program Director of the Vanguard Foundation, he worked as a consultant to the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation following Hurricane Katrina, and focused his efforts on community planning, organizing, and policy change during the disaster recovery efforts.
Mr. Newport has served as Director of the Institute of Community Economics; the Community Building Support Center for the Urban Strategies Council; and several Neighborhood Initiatives in Florida and Massachusetts. Notably, he was the Executive Director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative from 1988-1992, where he oversaw the organization’s collaborative vision for housing, safety, arts and culture, employment, and youth empowerment in Boston’s Roxbury and North Dorchester neighborhoods. He has also been an Advisory Board member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Additionally, Mr. Newport has served as a Faculty member, Fellow, and Lecturer-in-Residence at numerous universities, including Yale, the University of Massachusetts – Boston, and the University of California – Santa Cruz. In 2006, he was an MLK Scholar at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, where he led graduate coursework in planning for disenfranchised urban communities.
Free event, no RSVP necessary. Light refreshments provided.