In the third grade, Jamila Michener, Government, sent a letter to then New York City mayor David Dinkins asking him what she could do to help her Brooklyn neighborhood. It wasn’t until graduate school, after having long forgotten about the letter, that Michener’s mother showed her a copy of the letter, along with a response from Dinkins’ office.
“My mom always said that this preoccupation I had with race and poverty and politics started a long time ago,” says Michener. “Apparently this is what I was destined to do.” It’s no surprise then that Michener spends her time researching economic and racial inequality and how it affects people’s engagement with the political system.
Joseph Lubeck '78, right, meets with students and Professor Ross Brann during a recent campus visit, where they spoke about Lubeck's grandfather, Morris Escoll '1916, and an essay he wrote about life as a Jewish student at Cornell.
Provided
Photo illustration by Ashley Osburn/Cornell University
A student chronicled her life in the ’50s and ’60s—then shared those memories with her daughter and granddaughter