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Rev. Al Sharpton


Self Description

July 2007: "With over 40 years of experience as a community leader, politician, minister and advocate, the Rev. Al Sharpton is one of America’s most-renowned civil rights leaders. Now “The Rev.”, as he is affectionately called by close friends and supporters, is bringing his powerful voice to radio and getting the answers to real questions with his entertaining new daily talk show the Al Sharpton Show.

Whether running for President of the United States in 2004 or leading civil rights protests, Sharpton’s highly visible career began at the tender age of four when he preached his first sermon. A successful civil rights career soon followed helping Sharpton hold such notable positions as the Youth Director of New York’s Operation Breadbasket, Director of Ministers for National Rainbow Push coalition, and founder of his own broad-based progressive civil rights organization, the National Action Network.

Sharpton’s stance, in his own words, has taken him “from the streets to the suites” and his irrefutable impact on national politics has been applauded by both supporters and non-supporters alike. Sharpton continues to challenge the American political establishment to be inclusive to all people regardless of race, gender, class or beliefs.

In his 2003 book, “Al on America” Sharpton describes this vision for America and states his book should be used “to fight against the pro-big business, anti-labor, pro-death penalty matrix that has crippled America, and to talk about where I think we ought to be going in the 21st century."

Sharpton will draw on his experience as a grass roots organizer, community activist and politician to offer “real deal” commentary, practical answers and solutions."

http://www.sharptontalk.net/bio.html

Third-Party Descriptions

June 2008: '“Warner and I were talking about ‘Pacman’ Jones being arrested six times,” Imus said this morning, “and obviously they are picking on him.".... Al Sharpton, who helped lead the fight against Mr. Imus during the last controversy, is reserving judgment. “I find the inference of his remark disturbing because it plays into stereotypes,” he said. But he said he had yet to decide whether to take any action.'

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/imus-ambles-into-racial-territory-again/index.html

December 2007: 'Demeaning images of African-Americans are encouraged not only by mainstream media sources that use them to attract the eyeballs and dollars of black youth, but also by black entertainers who profit from it. The Rev. Al Sharpton was biting in his analysis of the situation last week. "Young black men have become stigmatized by this image of young black men as thugs," he said.'

http://www.newsweek.com/id/73347

December 2007: "“A black candidate doesn’t want to look like he’s only a black candidate,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist, who ran for president in 2004, said in an interview about Mr. Obama. “If he overidentifies with Sharpton, he looks like he’s only a black candidate. A white candidate reaches out to a Sharpton and looks like they have the ability to reach out. It looks like they’re presidential. That’s the dichotomy.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/us/politics/29obama.html

November 2007: "“It became the centerpiece of the movement,” Mr. Sharpton said recently. “What became so interesting about it was the mix of church people and business people and hard-core black nationalists and militants.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/nyregion/18slave.html

November 2007: '"There's Jenas everywhere," Sharpton said Friday. "Which is why you saw thousands of us come to Jena and why you see thousands of us come now.'

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/16/justice.rally/index.html

November 2007: President Eisenhower defended the Little Rock Nine, President Kennedy protected the Freedom Riders and President Johnson stood up for voting rights, 'but this federal government has done nothing for the Jena 6 or to stem the rising tide of hate that includes a proliferation of nooses and swastikas,' Sharpton said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/01/national.blackout/index.html

July 2007: The New York civil rights leader, the Rev Al Sharpton, protested outside the offices of leading record labels and met executives from Universal, Warner and Sony Music, who control 90 per cent of the rap market between them. He declared: 'We plan to continue to march until those three words are gone. ["nigger", "bitch" and "ho"--Ed.]'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/01/wrap101.xml

November 2006: If lethal police reactions really are contagious, then the sensible response is to control them like a disease. As Al Sharpton—who says 10,000 things a year and is right at least twice—pointed out Monday, contagious shooting as an explanation for this week's tragedy is 'even more frightening' than malice, since it implies that such incidents will recur.

http://www.slate.com/id/2154631/

February 2003: African-American leader and civil rights activist.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/07/politics/campaigns/07FLAG.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Member of (past or present) Democratic Party / Democratic National Committee (DNC) Organization Jul 2, 2007
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Founder/Co-Founder of National Action Network (NAN) Organization Jul 2, 2007
Organization Executive (past or present) Rainbow/PUSH Coalition (RPC) Organization Jul 2, 2007
Opponent (past or present) Don Imus Person Jul 2, 2007

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Jun 24, 2008 Imus Explains Racial Comments (The Lede)

QUOTE: So what is at work here, folks? Have Americans all lost the ability to detect sarcasm (the subject of this excellent science story)? Is Don Imus guilty of racism? Was this episode the calculated controversy-stirring of a veteran shock jock, meant to split the debate in two? Or is his on-air transformation complete, from a voice that was outrageously racially insensitive to one that is quite sensitive indeed?

 New York Times
Jun 24, 2008 Evangelist accuses Obama of 'distorting' Bible

QUOTE: In comments aired on his radio show Tuesday, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson criticized the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for comments he made in a June 2006 speech to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. In the speech, Obama suggested that it would be impractical to govern based solely on the word of the Bible, noting that some passages suggest slavery is permissible and eating shellfish is disgraceful.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
May 08, 2008 216 Held in Protests of Police Acquittals

QUOTE: The protesters expressed outrage over a Queens judge’s decision on April 25 to acquit the three detectives — Michael Oliver, Gescard F. Isnora and Marc Cooper — over the November 2006 death of Mr. Bell, who died in a hail of police bullets outside a nightclub in Jamaica, Queens, hours before he was to have been married. Mr. Sharpton and his National Action Network coordinated the protests...

 New York Times
Dec 29, 2007 A Biracial Candidate Walks His Own Fine Line

QUOTE: Much of Mr. Obama’s success as a politician has come from walking a fine line — as an independent Democrat and a progressive in a state dominated by the party organization and the political machine, and as a biracial American whose political ambitions require that he appeal to whites while still satisfying the hopes and expectations of blacks.

 New York Times
Dec 01, 2007 The Search for Thugs

QUOTE: Sean Taylor's death proved one thing. Young black men are stigmatized as gangstas, asking for trouble.

 Newsweek
Nov 18, 2007 A Symbol of Activism Is at Center of Court Dispute

QUOTE: But in 2001 Mr. Phillips was declared mentally incompetent — a result of an investigation that some believe was politically motivated — and a series of court-appointed guardians took over his affairs. For years, according to accusations in court by the current guardian, they siphoned off his fortune and failed to pay his taxes.

 New York Times
Nov 16, 2007 Rally urges hate crimes prosecutions, new AG responds

QUOTE: The protesters' frustration stems from several racially charged incidents over the past year and a half: the police shooting of an unarmed man in New York, hours before his wedding, in November 2006; the appearance of nooses in several workplaces and schools; the case of a black teen charged with child molestation after having sex with another willing teen; and the story of a black West Virginia woman whom six white people allegedly raped, tortured and forced to eat animal feces as they berated her with racial slurs.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Nov 13, 2007 Witnesses: Police shot man holding hairbrush

QUOTE: After officers arrived at the mother's Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, the teen refused to stop as he approached police with a black object in his hand hidden under his shirt, Browne said. Police then fired 20 shots at the teen, killing him, said Browne. But he said Coppin was found unarmed and only carrying a black hairbrush.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Nov 01, 2007 Radio host rallies blacks for boycott

QUOTE: Black Americans are being urged to keep their money in their wallets Friday to protest injustice and racism. Radio host and organizer Warren Ballentine hopes a "national blackout" of businesses will send Washington a message and he rejects criticism that his campaign is un-American.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Sep 04, 2007 Residents: Nooses spark school violence, divide town

QUOTE: The case is getting international media attention -- a buzz that has drawn the NAACP and civil rights stalwarts such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III -- but many in Jena are skeptical the boys can get a fair trial.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Jul 02, 2007 Gangsta rap on death row as the US tunes out

QUOTE: Confronted with haemorrhaging sales, [gangsta rap,] the most assertive popular music movement since the Sex Pistols has lost its swagger and is suffering a crisis of confidence. .... Rap has been deserted by many white fans and middle-class blacks, apparently tiring of the "gangsta" attitude to women, racism, violence and bling.

 Daily Telegraph
Jun 09, 2007 Celebrity Justice Cuts Both Ways for Paris Hilton

QUOTE: The national obsession with celebrity collided head-on with the more serious issue of the equal application of justice on Friday, as a judge sent the socialite Paris Hilton back to jail some 36 hours after she was released for an unspecified medical problem.

 New York Times
Nov 30, 2006 Catch and Shoot: The perils of "contagious shooting."

QUOTE: We can't keep doing what we've been doing: giving cops high-round semiautomatic weapons because we trust them not to blast away like robots, then excusing them like robots when they blast away.

 Slate
Aug 19, 2006 Different Focus in Atlanta on Young’s Remark

QUOTE: people who have known Mr. Young for decades seem rather satisfied that his comment that Jewish, Arab and Korean store owners had “ripped off” black neighborhoods, “selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables” had severed his link with his most high-profile client, Wal-Mart Stores, in whose defense he made the remark.

 New York Times
Aug 03, 2006 Lieberman Assails Lamont Over Supporter's Blog Post

QUOTE: The bitter Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut erupted in fresh controversy Wednesday over a doctored photo of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) in blackface that was posted by a blogger who has been an influential promoter of challenger Ned Lamont.

 Washington Post
Jun 01, 2003 Staffing the Homeland

QUOTE: U.S. intelligence and security agencies are hoping to people the ranks with some cross-cultural emissaries who might serve as a buffer between the gray-suited old guard and the unknown "other."

 ColorLines Magazine
Feb 07, 2003 Confederate Flag Boycott Tests Presidential Candidates' Resolve

QUOTE: The Democratic candidates for president are struggling these days to work their way through a bit of a headache: How to campaign in South Carolina...without running afoul of an economic boycott intended to force the removal of a Confederate flag from the State House grounds.

 New York Times