newark (n.j.)

It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first African American Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but the odds are against her until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.

It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first black Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but the odds are against her until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.

It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first African American Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but the odds are against her until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.

Dr. Sampson Davis, one of the three doctors of the Three Doctors Foundation, writes about his life as an ER doctor working in the city he grew up in, discussing why inner city medical conditions are so disproportionately high when it comes to heart disease, asthma, strokes, AIDS, and obesity.

A documentary film detailing the thirty-two-year-old Cory Booker, a Yale Law School graduate, following his election as mayor of Newark, New Jersey in 2002, and details how he fought in Newark's neighborhoods and housing projects, the election pits the young challenger against an old style political machine.