Kurt Schmoke

Infobox Mayor
name = Kurt Lidell Schmoke


imagesize =175px
caption =Kurt Schmoke in 1997
office = 46^th Mayor of Baltimore
term_start = January 10, 1988
term_end = 1999
deputy =
predecessor = Clarence "Du" Burns
successor = Martin O'Malley
birth_date = birth date and age|1949|12|1
birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland
death_date =
death_place =
constituency =
party = Democrat
spouse = Dr. Patricia Schmoke (Locks)
children = Greg and Katherine [http://www.nycastings.com/Inquiry/ViewProfile.asp?QPId=104]
profession = Law School Dean
religion = Christian
footnotes =
order2 = State's Attorney for Baltimore City
term_start2 = 1983
term_end2 = 1987
deputy2 =
predecessor2 = William A. Swisher
successor2 = Stuart O. Simms

Kurt L. Schmoke (born December 1, 1949) is the Dean of the Howard University School of Law and a former mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. The son of Murray (a civilian chemist for the US Army) and Irene Schmoke (a social worker), he attended the public schools of Baltimore. He was Baltimore's second black mayor but the first to be elected.

High school

Athletics

Schmoke attended the Baltimore City College, the third oldest high school in the United States and the largest high school in Maryland at the time of his graduation in 1967. Schmoke excelled in both football and lacrosse. His speed afoot and his passing accuracy won him the starting job as the varsity and junior varsity quarterback. As the varsity quarterback, he led the City Knights to two undefeated seasons and successive Maryland Scholastic Association A-conference championships in 1965 and 1966. In lacrosse, his speed served him well again as a starting midfielder for a team that dominated public school competition.

Civic commitment at an early age

As a student, Schmoke was a member of the Baltimore City College "A-course", a college preparatory curriculum that required him to take Latin and other advanced studies not offered to the average Baltimore high school student. Schmoke was elected president of the school's student government in his senior year but also worked in the Baltimore community with disadvantaged youth. Compulsory community service had not yet been mandated for Baltimore high school students; yet he tutored and mentored young men from the inner city as a member of the Lancers boys club. [ [http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/00_11/schmoke.html YAM November 2000 - Powerful Persuader ] ]

College and graduate school

Schmoke entered Yale University in the fall of 1967. He played quarterback on the freshman team that year. While at Yale, Schmoke and his classmates started a day care center on campus for the children of University's janitors and cafeteria workers who lived in New Haven. The center was named after Calvin Hill, a former Yale football star and still stands today [http://alumni.yale.edu/classes/yc1971/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/chdcc-4.jpg] . Schmoke has been acknowledged as the undergraduate student leader who helped quell the possibility of riot on the Yale campus in the wake of the New Haven Black Panther trials in the spring of 1970. As the city filled with radical protesters, students demanded that classes be suspended. A bitterly divided faculty met to discuss strategy, and invited a student leader to address the gathering. Schmoke, who was Secretary of the Class of 1971 and a leader of the Black Student Alliance at Yale, was selected to represent the students. ["Powerful Persuader", in the Yale Alumni Magazine, November 2000] He spoke only a few sentences: "The students on this campus are confused, they're frightened. They don't know what to think. You are older than we are, and are more experienced. We want guidance from you, moral leadership. On behalf of my fellow students, I beg you to give it to us." [Mayday at Yale: A Case Study in Student Radicalism, John Taft, Westview Press, 1976] This moment is credited with helping to dispel the growing tensions: the university voted to bend its rules, making classes "voluntarily optional" to the end of the term, and despite small outbreaks of violence, no campus-wide unrest resulted.

After graduating from Yale with a degree in history (1971) [ [http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/conference/bio-06.html Biographies ] ] , where he was a member of Wolf's Head Society, Schmoke studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1976.

Early career

He then joined the Baltimore law firm of Piper and Marbury and was part of the White House Domestic Policy Staff during the Carter Administration, before returning to Baltimore as Assistant United States Attorney in 1978.

Elective office

In 1982 Schmoke won his first elected office, becoming Baltimore City State's Attorney, the city's chief prosecutor.On November 3, 1987, he was elected mayor. As mayor, he became known for his opposition to the "War on Drugs" and his stance in favor of drug decriminalization. Schmoke initiated programs in housing, education, public health and economic development. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush awarded him the national Literacy Award for his efforts to promote adult literacy, and in 1994 President Bill Clinton cited Baltimore's programs to improve public housing and enhance community economic development and named Baltimore one of six cities to receive Empowerment Zone designation.

Life after politics

After leaving office in December 1999, Schmoke practiced law at the firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Picketing in Baltimore. [cite web|url=http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2429/Schmoke-Kurt.html|title=Kurt Schmoke Biography - Started Strong, Wise Beyond His Years, A Successful Lawyer, Strong Start as Mayor of Baltimore|last=Kram|first=Mark|coauthors=Tom Pendergast|publisher=Net Industries |accessdate=2008-04-11]
In 2003, Schmoke was appointed the dean of the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. In 2004, Schmoke was appointed an honorary fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He is also on the board of Global Rights, and a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. In 2008, Schmoke delivered the keynote lecture, “A New Hundred Years War? The Compelling Need to Reform National Drug Control Policy” for the Edward Bouchet Conference on Diversity in Graduate Education at Yale University.

He also appeared in two 2004 episodes of the acclaimed HBO series "The Wire". The episodes, entitled "Middle Ground" and "Mission Accomplished", featured Schmoke in a bit part as a health commissioner.cite episode
title = Middle Ground
episodelink = Middle Ground (The Wire episode)
series = The Wire
serieslink = The Wire (TV series)
credits = David Simon, George P. Pelecanos
writers =
network = HBO
station =
city =
airdate = 2004-12-12
season = 3
number = 11] cite web
year = 2004
title = Episode guide - episode 36 Middle Ground
publisher = HBO
accessdate = 2006-08-24
url = http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season3/episode36.shtml] cite episode
title = Mission Accomplished
episodelink = Mission Accomplished (The Wire episode)
series = The Wire
serieslink = The Wire (TV series)
credits = David Simon, Ed Burns
writers =
network = HBO
station =
city =
airdate = 2004-12-19
season = 3
number = 12] cite web
year = 2004
title = Episode guide - episode 37 Mission Accomplished
publisher = HBO
accessdate = 2006-08-24
url = http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season3/episode37.shtml] He acts as an advisor to the fictional mayor after a rogue police major has legalized drugs in a portion of the city.Cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/10/22/071022fa_fact_talbot?currentPage=1|title=Stealing Life|accessdate=2007-10-14|publisher=The New Yorker|year=2007|author=Margaret Talbot] This is a reference to his own feelings on the drug war.

In July 2008 Kurt Schmoke became the acting Senior Vice President of Academic Matters at Howard University, a position that was previously held by Richard English, Ph.D. Thus, holding the position of Provost for the university. Schmoke will be the Provost in addition to his position as Dean of the Howard University School of Law. It had been rumored that he was going to be named the new President, but he had denied the claim on several occasions. [http://www.provost.howard.edu/] Schmoke also teaches election law as a seminar class every fall semester to third year law students.

Notes

References

* [http://www.blackseek.com/bh/2001/85_KSmoke.htm Kurt Schmoke: Baltimore's First Black Mayor]
* [http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/news/honfel04.asp New Honorary Fellows at Balliol]

External links

*IMDB|0773547