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All of them - like Obama - have won electoral success by seeking to move beyond racial identity. They could be the first trickles of a coming flood. 'This surge of black politicians running post-racial campaigns is new. But if Obama wins the White House we are going to see a major shift towards them,' said Caroline Heldman, a political scientist at California's Occidental College.
Booker looks every inch the new black politician. He is handsome and young and wears dapper suits. He has an impressive educational background: a degree from Stanford and a Rhodes Scholar. He grew up in a mostly white town in New Jersey, the son of IBM executives.
Yet here he is as the mayor of Newark, a city that, for much of America, has come to mean rampant crime and sprawling black ghettos. He is now turning it around. Booker has substantially reduced violent crime. He has reformed the police force and brought high-profile companies to the city. He is a relentlessly upbeat advocate for the city despite its reputation.
That reputation was largely born in 1967. After rumours spread that white police had beaten a black taxi driver, riots broke out that cost 26 lives, injured more than 700 and saw the National Guard brought onto the streets. It resulted in the flight of the white middle class, leaving behind an impoverished black populace. Memories run deep here. Watching the plaque being unveiled was Atno Smith, who grew up near where the riot started. 'You call it a riot,' he said 'We call it a rebellion. You can call it a police riot if you like. Or a National Guard riot.'
Such sentiments have been common in black American politics for a generation; defined by a sense of injustice and the notion that street protest was the best way to address black concerns. The TV image of Sharpton and Jackson leading a march to protest at a police shooting or a racially motivated murder has become a cultural signpost for modern American life. But Obama, Booker and others are seeking to change that.