Brakkton Booker
Brakkton Booker is a National Desk reporter based in Washington, DC.
He covers a wide range of topics including issues related to federal social safety net programs and news around the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
His reporting takes him across the country covering natural disasters, like hurricanes and flooding, as well as tracking trends in regional politics and in state governments, particularly on issues of race.
Following the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Booker's reporting broadened to include a focus on young activists pushing for changes to federal and state gun laws, including the March For Our Lives rally and national school walkouts.
Prior to joining NPR's national desk, Booker spent five years as a producer/reporter for NPR's political unit. He spent most to the 2016 presidential campaign cycle covering the contest for the GOP nomination and was the lead producer from the Trump campaign headquarters on election night. Booker served in a similar capacity from the Louisville campaign headquarters of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2014. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he produced pieces and filed dispatches from the Republican and Democratic National conventions, as well as from President Obama's reelection site in Chicago.
In the summer of 2014, Booker took a break from politics to report on the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
Booker started his career as a show producer working on nearly all of NPR's magazine programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and former news and talk show Tell Me More, where he produced the program's signature Barbershop segment.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University and was a 2015 Kiplinger Fellow. When he's not on the road, Booker enjoys discovering new brands of whiskey and working on his golf game.
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George Washington grew cannabis. Not the kind you toke, but the kind to make rope. Industrial hemp was returned to Mount Vernon this year to help cultivate a new image for the crop.
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The gap between black and white homeownership rates has widened in recent decades. Baltimore is a majority black city, but research shows it has a gap of 31 percent, mirroring the national average.
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The Charlotte Housing Authority requires that people who get housing subsidies work — and the program is considered a success story. But helping people become self-sufficient remains a challenge.
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Student-led demonstrations calling for an end to gun violence gained traction after the shooting at a Parkland, Fla. high school. As the year ends, here's a look at how the movement has gone.
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Students across the country left their classrooms at 10 a.m. Friday to protest violence in schools. In Washington, D.C. students marched from the White House to the U.S. Capitol.
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For Friday's national school walkout, students in the Nation's Capital are marching from the White House to the Capitol building to protest violence in schools.
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President Trump has signed an executive order calling for stronger work requirements for public assistance. Supporters say the move will bring down public spending. Opponents worry it will make it harder for some to get the help they need.
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Inspired by Parkland students' activism following the deadly shooting at their high school last month, local residents are helping young demonstrators find lodging.
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In Tallahassee on Friday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott met with loved ones of the 17 people killed at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last month. Scott also signed legislation tightening gun restrictions in the state.
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Florida Gov. Rick Scott has called for an investigation into local authorities' reaction to the Parkland shooting. After numerous calls for release of the 911 tapes, the sheriff's office did so.