 Booker was born on April 27 , 1969 , in Washington , D.C. , and grew up in Harrington Park , New Jersey , 20 miles ( 32 km ) north of Newark , New Jersey . His parents , Carolyn Rose ( née Jordan ) and Cary Alfred Booker , were among the first black executives at IBM . Booker has stated that he was raised in a religious household , and that he and his family attended a small African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Jersey . One of Booker 's maternal great @-@ grandfathers was white , and Booker also has other European and Native American ancestry . 
