If you don’t know the name Michael Tubbs, now’s the time to fix that. If he’s on Oprah’s radar, you know he should be on yours. He’s only the youngest and first-ever Black mayor of Stockton, California, and his new book, The Deeper the Roots: A memoir of hope and home should be on your must-read list.
Tubbs grew up poor in Stockton, California. His father was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, so he was raised by a trio of maternal figures: his hip-hop-loving mother, his church-going grandmother, and his bookworm aunt.
For his whole life, he straddled two worlds: that of a brainiac and that of a cool street kid who coveted the newest Jordans. As a teenager, he nabbed a scholarship to Stanford, but never forgot where he came from – and realized that his perspective and experience were essential to the goings-on in politics.
In 2016, at the tender age of 26, he became a trailblazer as the first Black mayor of Stockton and the youngest person ever to be elected mayor of a city with a population of over 100,000.
Tubbs’ story is not only accessible, it’s inspirational. It is equal parts head and heart, exploring weighty topics like systemic racism, educational reform, and campaign finance while always returning to his personal struggle “against the soft bigotry of low expectations” and the ways the women in his life taught him that the “things that were tough about our lives were reasons…to prove Them wrong.”
Throughout the book, Tubbs shares how influential Black role models like Alice Walker, Barack Obama, and Oprah influenced him.
This is not, as Tubbs writes, “a sob story, but a survivor’s tale.” And it’s one that’ll infuse you with new hope about the future of the American political landscape.
Cover Photos: NICK OTTO / Contributor (Getty Images) and Flatiron/Oprah
MORE NEWS:
Entertainment News 11 15 21
-
Sexy Wrestler Paige Van Zant Posts Thong Photos on Instagram (And We Are Down For the Count)
Read more here.
Photo: Instagram
-
Dakota Johnson to Gift Butt Plugs This Holiday Season, How Do We Get on Her Naughty List?
Read more here.
Photo: Karwai Tang / Contributor (Getty Images)
-
Ranked! The Best Batsuits Including Bulletproof Armor For Robert Pattinson’s ‘The Batman’
Read more here.
Photo: Warner Bros.
-
Mandatory Tweets: The Funniest Twitter Reactions to Paul Rudd Being Named People’s Sexiest Man Alive
Read more here.
Photo: NBC (Getty Images)
-
Mandatory Food Trends: Justin Bieber Is Teaming Up With…Who? And Why?
Read more here.
Photo: Tim Horton's
-
Listen to Howard Stern Rip Aaron Rodgers a New One Over Covid Vaccine Controversy
Read more here.
Photo: Kevin Mazur / Contributor (Getty Images)
-
Mandatory Funniest Tweets: Big Bird Takes a Beating For Announcing He Got the Vaccine, It’s Hard Out There on the (Sesame) Street
Read more here.
Photo: Matthew Peyton / Stringer (Getty Images)
-
New Dating Show ‘The Love Trap’ Literally Drops Rejected Female Contestants Through Trapdoor, Gives New Meaning to Getting Dumped
Read more here.
Photo: Channel4
-
Dollhouse Artist Recreates ‘Friends’ Central Perk Set, Perfect Depiction of Miniature White Privilege
Read more here.
Photo: New York Post
-
Mandatory Tweets: Elon Musk Changes Name to Lorde Edge and Twitter Is Full of Conspiracies and Funny Jabs
Read more here.
Photo: Pool (Getty Images)
