Al Sharpton

Al Sharpton

Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is a Pentecostal minister, and political and civil rights activist. In 2004 Sharpton was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

Early years

Al Sharpton was born in Brooklyn, New York to Ada and Rev. Alfred Charles Sharpton, Sr. He preached his first sermon at the age of four and toured with gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

In 1963, his parents separated. He grew up poor; his mother took a job as a maid, but did not make enough money and so qualified for welfare. The family moved from Queens to the projects in Brownsville. He was licensed and ordained a minister at the age of 10 by Bishop F.D. Washington in 1964.

He graduated from Samuel J. Tilden High School in Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn College for two years. In 1971, Sharpton became a tour manager for James Brown, where he met his future wife, Kathy Jordan, a backup singer. Sharpton and Jordan married in 1983.

Activism

In 1969,Sharpton was appointed by Jesse Jackson as youth director of Operation Breadbasket, a group that focused on the promotion of new and better jobs for black Americans. [1]

In 1971, Sharpton founded the National Youth Movement to raise resources for impoverished youth.[2]

In 1991, Sharpton founded the National Action Network to increase voter education, poverty services, and support small community businesses.[3]

In 1999, Sharpton led a protest to raise awareness about the death of Amadou Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea who was shot to death by NYPD officers. Sharpton claimed that Diallo's death was the result of police brutality and racial profiling. Diallo's family was later awarded $3 million in a wrongful death suit filed against the city.

In 2001, Sharpton served a three-month prison term for an act of civil disobedience consisting in illegally trespassing on U.S. property located on a bombing range in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Sharpton was imprisoned for protesting the United States Navy's ongoing bombing and target practices on the island. [4]

Sharpton was also involved in protests following the 2002 death of West African immigrant Ousmane Zongo. Zongo, who was unarmed, was shot by an undercover police officer during a raid on a warehouse in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. [5] Sharpton met with the family and also provided some legal services.[6] [7] He has also spoken out against cruelty to animals in a video recorded for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). [8]

Sharpton is a supporter of equal rights for gays and lesbians, including same-sex marriage. Sharpton is leading a grassroots movement to eliminate homophobia within the Black Church. [9]

Political campaigns

Sharpton has run for elected office on multiple occasions. Sharpton ran for a United States Senate seat from New York in 1988, 1992, and 1994. In 1997, he ran for Mayor of New York City.

On January 5, 2003 Sharpton announced his candidacy for the 2004 presidential election as a member of the Democratic Party.

On March 15, 2004, Sharpton announced his endorsement of leading Democratic candidate John Kerry.

On December 15, 2005, Sharpton agreed to repay $100,000 in public funds he received from the federal government for his 2004 Presidential campaign. The repayment was required because Sharpton had exceeded federal limits on personal expenditures for his campaign. At that time his most recent Federal Election Commission filings (from January 1, 2005) stated that Sharpton's campaign still had debts of $479,050 and owed Sharpton himself $145,146 for an item listed as "Fundraising Letter Preparation — Kinko's." [10]

Sharpton has neither declared his candidacy for the 2008 presidential campaign as a Democrat or as an independent, nor has he specifically said that he will not run.

Controversies

Tawana Brawley Controversy

See also: Tawana Brawley

Case

In the Tawana Brawley case, a 15-year-old black girl was found smeared with feces, lying in a garbage bag, her clothing torn and burned and with various slurs and epithets written on her body in charcoal. Brawley claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by six white men, some of them police officers, in the town of Wappingers Falls, New York.

Alton H. Maddox, C. Vernon Mason joined Sharpton in support of Brawley. A grand jury was convened; after seven months of examining police and medical records, the jury determined that Brawley lied about being assaulted by the police. Sharpton, Maddox and Mason were later successfully sued for statements made in connection with the case, and ordered to pay $345,000 in damages. All three falsely accused the case prosecutor, Steven Pagones, as being among those who abducted and raped Brawley.[11]The jury found Sharpton liable for making seven defamatory statements about Pagones, Maddox for two and Mason for one. [12]

Crown Height Riots

The Crown Heights Riot occurred after a car accident involving the motorcade for the Lubavitcher Rebbe killing a young boy Gavin Cato. A riot was sparked after a private Hasidic ambulance came to the scene and, on the orders of a police officer, removed the Hasidic driver from the scene. Gavin Cato and his cousin Angela were picked up soon after by a city ambulance. Caribbean-American and African-American residents of the neighborhood then rioted for four consecutive days fueled by rumors (in part driven by Sharpton) that the private ambulance had refused to treat Cato. [13]

Al Sharpton became the de-facto representative for the Cato family. During the funeral he referred to "diamond merchants" considered a code word for Hasidic Jews, for shedding "the blood of innocent babies" leading marchers shouting "No Justice No Peace". Sharpton did not start the riots but his rhetoric was seen as inflammatory and unhelpful in easing the tension between the black and Jewish communities. A visiting rabbinical student from Australia by the name of Yankel Rosenbaum, 29 years old, was killed during the rioting by a mob shouting "Kill the Jew". [14]

Sharpton was accused by the RNC of being a "racist anti-Semite with blood on his hands... He is the David Duke of the Democrat Party." [15]

Freddie's Fashion Mart

It is also alleged that after calling a Jewish shopkeeper a "white interloper," he looked on while an associate of his suggested the man's shop should be burned down. When a black member of the crowd did so, killing several people and himself, Sharpton initially denied having been present. When confronted with a video tape showing his presence, he said: "What's wrong with denouncing white interlopers?" [16] [17] [18] [19]

LoanMax spokesman

In November 2005, Sharpton appeared in advertisements for LoanMax, an automobile title loan company. Sharpton was criticized for appearing in the ads, as LoanMax has been accused of predatory lending charging fees, and for marketing them to primarily poor, urban and African American audiences. The ads featuring Sharpton were run in predominantly African American markets.[20]

On December 7, 2005, Sharpton ended his relationship with LoanMax in a letter to Rod Aycox, LoanMax president and chief executive officer. The letter read, "I respectfully, but firmly decline your offer for further engagement on my part, and will not engage in any business relationship to promote auto lending with LoanMax." Sharpton said he had not done the research before agreeing to the commercials. [21]

Attitude toward Barack Obama

Media reports have suggested tension between Sharpton and Barack Obama. [22], [23]

According to CNN, Sharpton has denied being jealous of Obama, saying that "I want to talk about a civil rights agenda as a priority, and the answer to that is not, 'Oh if you want to talk about issues you must be jealous'." Sharpton has suggested an Obama operative planted the story. [24]

Indirect ties to Strom Thurmond

In February 2007, genealogists using the website Ancestry.com discovered that Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather. Coleman Sharpton was later freed during the Civil War.

Thurmond was notable as the longest serving Senator (at the time of his death) who was a major advocate of racial segregation during the middle of the last century. Thurmond's illegitimate daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, stated she would welcome Sharpton to the family if the DNA test he claims he will take shows he is a relative.

The Sharpton family name originated with Coleman Sharpton's previous slave-owner, who was also named Alexander Sharpton.

Celebrity status

Sharpton made cameo appearances in the movies Cold Feet, Bamboozled, Mr. Deeds, and Malcolm X. He also appeared in episodes of the television shows New York Undercover, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Girlfriends, My Wife and Kids, and Boston Legal. He hosted the original Spike TV reality television show I Hate My Job, and an episode of Saturday Night Live. He was a guest on Weekends at the DL on Comedy Central and has been featured in television ads for the Fernando Ferrer campaign for the New York City mayoral election, 2005.

During the 2005 Tony Awards, Sharpton appeared in a number put on by the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

In June 2005, Sharpton signed a contract with Matrix Media, to produce and host a live two-hour daily talk program, which did not air. In November 2005, Sharpton signed with Radio One to host a daily national talk radio program which began airing on January 30, 2006.

Books authored by Sharpton

• Sharpton, Al, Go and Tell Pharaoh (hardcover), Doubleday, 1996. ISBN 0-385-47583-7
• Sharpton, Al, Al on America (hardcover), Dafina Books, 2002. ISBN 0-7582-0350-0
• Sharpton, Al, Al on America (paperback), Dafina Books, 2003. ISBN 0-7582-0351-9g

External links

• Al Sharpton at IMDb
• The Al Sharpton Show (talk show)
• Salon Interview with Al Sharpton
• Text of Democratic National Convention 2004 Speech
• Court TV materials on the Tawana Brawley case, including the complete 1988 grand jury report
• CNN story on the Pagones suit
• On the Issues - Al Sharpton issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org - Al Sharpton campaign contributions