Short Biography Of Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders was born on September 8th, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York City. His father, Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders was born in Austria-Hungary to a Jewish family that eventually immigrated to the United States. His mother, Dorothy, was born in New York City to a Jewish family who immigrated as well from Poland and Russia. Bernie lived in Midwood, Brooklyn where he attended school. He’s was a very accomplished student throughout his school years. Sanders was captain of his track team where they took 3rd place in the New York City indoor one-mile race. In high school, he lost his first election running for the student body presidency coming in the last place. Not long after Bernie graduated high school his mother, Dorothy, passed away at the young age of 46. Just a few years later, on August 4, 1962, Bernie’s 57-year-old father Elias, passed away as well.

Sander’s attended Brooklyn College for one year before he transferring to the University of Chicago where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. After college, Sanders was extremely active in his community. He worked a variety of jobs including a Head Start teacher, psychiatric aide, and carpenter. He then joined the Young People’s Socialist League and was active in the Civil Rights Movement as a student for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Sanders participated in rallies to help end the segregation among white and black students at schools and colleges. He also attended the 1963 march in Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

In 1980, Bernie Sanders ran for mayor of Burlington, Vermont where he was mayor for eight years. Sanders then ran for the U.S. Senate in 1991 serving as a representative for 16 years. Along the way, he was very active and vocal during his term helping to establish cancer registries to collect data on cancer. He voted against the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks when buying guns and imposed a waiting period on firearm purchasers in the United States. Sanders believed Vermont constituents (high on hunting, low on homicide) saw waiting-period mandates as a more appropriately a state than federal matter. He also was critical of the Patriot Act and opposed U.S. forces against Iraq in the war between 1991 and 2002. In 1996, Sanders voted against a bill that would have prohibited the purchasing of tanks and armored carries by police.