"When I was growing up, we used to play basketball in a park that was never shoveled when it snowed. The basketball rims were never fixed. And we understood then that there was a relationship between public policy and our quality of life."
The Reverend DeForest Blake "Buster" Soaries, Jr. (born August 20, 1951) is an African-American Baptist minister, author and public advocate, from Montclair, New Jersey. He is the former Secretary of State of New Jersey and former chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission. He was the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey, a position he had held since November 1990 until his retirement from the church in June 2021.
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The Reverend DeForest Blake "Buster" Soaries, Jr. (born August 20, 1951) is an African-American Baptist minister, author and public advocate, from Montclair, New Jersey. He is the former Secretary of State of New Jersey and former chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission. He was the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey, a position he had held since November 1990 until his retirement from the church in June 2021.
