Of the 43 individuals to have held the Office of President of the United States, 15 attended law school. It’s common practice for anyone looking to make it in the realm of politics. But although Jamell Henderson aspires to one day hold that office, he says he wants to do it “by the beat of [his] own drum.”
And he plans to keep it that way as he prepares to apply to the CUNY Graduate Center for a Ph.D. in political science, rather than seeking a law degree.
“You need to know the craft so well that you can change the game,” he told the Amsterdam News in a telephone interview Tuesday. “You don’t need a law degree; you need the expertise.”
This method has been Henderson’s m.o. for most of his life: unrelentingly following his political aspirations his own way.
Henderson, a 31-year-old Brooklyn native, has had an undergrad career that would make most millennials’ head spin.
He attended CUNY’s Borough of Manhattan Community College several years after aging out of the New York City’s foster care system. There, Henderson—who served as a student senator, vice president and president of the college’s Student Government Association—led the charge to draft a resolution that condemned the killings of Ramarley Graham and Trayvon Martin.
When he matriculated to Brooklyn College, Henderson saw a need for Black issues to be raised. He started a petition that garnered more 30,000 signatures and a fair amount of media attention.
The petition boldly asked CNN to “remove Don Lemon,” a fellow Brooklyn College alumnus.
“I know that for his field, it wasn’t easy to get his name out there, but that he worked hard every day to get to where he is at right now,” Henderson wrote on the petition’s introduction.
The petition continued, “But what concerns me is that Lemon has repeatedly failed to fulfill his responsibility to remain objective and unbiased in his work.”
He also served as president of the Caribbean Student Union and resurrected the NAACP Club, which had been defunct for a decade, in 2014.
“Hearing the stories of student leaders who came before me I realized how important it was to have these clubs,” Henderson said. “It’s so important to have that voice at the table in Brooklyn College.”
As accomplished as his undergraduate career was, Henderson had already shown that he was only getting started.
Just three days after graduating from Brooklyn College in May 2015, he started classes as a national urban fellow at Baruch College’s Master of Public Administration Program.
He spent nine of his 18 months at the program far from Brooklyn as he worked under two mayors in Indianapolis: Greg Ballard, a Republican, and Joseph Hogsett, a Democrat.
Henderson told the Amsterdam News that although the move was a bit of a culture shock for him, he enjoyed every minute of his time there.
“This is the first time I lived outside of Brooklyn, so it was a huge adjustment,” he said. “But it gave me an opportunity to live outside of my comfort zone, both politically and socially.”
Henderson is now prepping his applications to the CUNY Graduate Center. And although the application process is widely considered difficult, Henderson views it as “taking a break.”
“I went this route because I love school,” said Henderson. “I love the opportunity to learn. Studying what I want to do gives me an opportunity to expand my knowledge in so many different ways.”
After his completion of a doctoral degree, Henderson wants to begin looking into a run for public office. Although that’s still a few years down the line, he said that he was looking into the City Council or even the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President as potential targets.
During his downtime, Henderson has been paying close attention to this year’s presidential race.
He said that he was dismayed by the results, in which the Republican Party remained in control of Congress and Donald J. Trump was elected president.
“We New Yorkers know about Mayor Rudy Giuliani,” he said, referring to the former mayor of New York City who has been one of Trump’s top surrogates. “Can you imagine him leading the country as attorney general or the FBI?”
Henderson was also worried about down ballot races in New York, which resulted in the GOP remain in control of the state Senate. “They control things that New Yorkers simply need, like CUNY’s budget,” he said.
About his own aspirations, Henderson stated, “I want people to say ‘If a kid from Brooklyn can do that, so can I. It’s an ambition that’s burning in me now than ever before.”