Robert Booker is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee where he graduated from Austin High School in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army in France and England as an Information and Education Specialist. He graduated from Knoxville College in 1962 where he majored in English and French.

At Knoxville College he was a two-term president of the Student Body and initiated and led the sit-in movement to desegregate lunch counters and movie theaters in downtown Knoxville. He spent the summer of 1961 with a student group in French West Africa in the country of Guinea.

After teaching French at Howard High School in Chattanooga for two years, Robert Booker returned to Knoxville and became the first black ever elected to the State Legislature from Knox County where he served three terms. He was Administrative Assistant to the Mayor of Knoxville for seven years.

For sixteen years Booker was executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. He wrote a weekly column for the Knoxville Journal for four year and served on the State Civil Service Commission, the Tennessee Committee on Humanities, and other boards. He is the organizer of the Austin High School Alumni Association that celebrated the 125th anniversary of the school in July 2004.

Booker has published three books: "Two Hundred Years of Black Culture In Knoxville, Tennessee, 1791 – 1991;" "And There Was Light! The 120 Year History of Knoxville College 1875 – 1995;" and "The Heat of a Red Summer." He has recently completed his fourth book, "From the Bottom Up" which is not yet published.

Booker was appointed in February 2009 to represent the Sixth District when former Councilman Mark Brown resigned to accept the position of Judicial Commissioner in January 2009.