(BALTIMORE – April 20, 2026) — When we talk about Black Wall Street, we’re talking about more than business ownership. We’re talking about the full liberation of Black people — economically, educationally, and spiritually. Dr. Mark Cornelius Booker embodies that vision in real time.
He is a social scientist, an educator, a former commissioner — and a man who walks into prisons not to punish, but to teach. That work alone deserves our deepest respect.
Dr. Booker currently serves as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Delaware State University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate students while advising the student sociology club. But his reach extends far beyond any one campus. His life’s work sits at the intersection of higher education, criminal justice reform, and community engagement — pushing systems to do better by the people they too often leave behind.
His work in prison education is both personal and profound.
Dr. Booker has taught in multiple correctional education programs across Maryland, including the Second Chance Pell Experiment at Jessup Correctional Institution in partnership with Bowie State University and University of Baltimore. He also taught through the Higher Education Programs for Correctional Institutions at Patuxent Institution via Coppin State University, and the Inmate Extension Program at the Maryland Penitentiary through Morgan State University.
Three HBCUs. Three programs. One mission: giving incarcerated people a real shot at transformation.
He doesn’t just talk the talk.
Dr. Booker volunteers with the Brenda Murray Book Group at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women. On the national stage, he has served as a co-panelist on Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Carceral Settings, a national webinar hosted by the American Sociological Association. His scholarship examines how we teach behind bars — and why it matters for all of us on the outside.
Before entering academia, Booker led We Teach and Tutor, LLC as CEO, managing a multi-million-dollar budget and a team of more than 200 staff members supporting special education across 70 schools over a decade. He later served as assistant superintendent at the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services and presided over hundreds of judicial hearings as a commissioner for the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City.
This brother has been in the room where it happens — and he used that access to fight for those who needed it most.
His academic credentials are equally impressive. Dr. Booker recently earned his Ph.D. from Morgan State University in interdisciplinary organizational policy, governance, and administration. He holds a master’s degree with honors from Coppin State University and a bachelor’s degree from Howard University. Morgan. Coppin. Howard. That’s an HBCU trifecta.
Dr. Booker’s research focuses on higher education in prisons, organizational policy and governance, and community engagement. His work has been featured on NBC4-WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., The Baltimore Sun, and The Capitol Gazette. And in a detail that says everything about who he is, he is also the co-author of the children’s book Why Our Teacher Wears Yellow — because he understands that building the next generation starts early.
At the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards BENEDETTO 2.0 on this Sunday, April 26th at 3pm, we are proud to honor Dr. Mark Cornelius Booker for his unwavering commitment to second-chance education, restorative justice, and the belief that no one is beyond redemption.
His life’s work is a testament to what happens when a brilliant mind is matched with a servant’s heart.
That is Black Wall Street.
That is Baltimore.
That is us.
RSVP to blackwallstreetbenedetto25.eventbrite.com.
