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The Rev. Al Sharpton pushed community leaders Tuesday to get black voters to the polls in Central Florida.

Speaking at a leadership forum in Eatonville, the firebrand civil rights activist reminded the roughly 120 people in attendance of the Jim Crow-era sacrifices by those who fought for the right to vote. There's no excuse for low voter turnout now, he said.

"They fought, they were beaten, they were jailed," Sharpton said. "Here we are 40 to 45 years later, in Florida, working at jobs that your grandma couldn't work at, living in neighborhoods where they couldn't live, checking into any hotel you want, eating in any restaurant you want and too lazy and ungrateful to use what somebody else died to give you."

The forum at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church was organized by the Central Florida Chapter of National Action Network, an organization Sharpton founded.

In March, Sharpton and hundreds of demonstrators marched to the Capitol in Tallahassee to warn Republican lawmakers that failing to repeal the state's controversial "stand your ground" law would come back to bite them at the midterm election in November.

On Tuesday, he implored local leaders to make good on that threat.

"If we don't vote, and vote out those who come up with these backward laws, they will continue to do it again," Sharpton said. "They are counting on you not to show up."

In 2012, Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled Legislature scaled back early voting from 14 to eight days and barred it on the final Sunday, a day when African American churches typically provide transportation to voting sites for their members in what's known as a "Souls to the Polls" push.

That year, some polling places saw hours-long waits the worst in the nation. In response to what became a national spectacle, state lawmakers reversed course and again authorized more early-voting locations, hours and days, including the final Sunday.

Even so, turnout among Democrats was low in the Aug. 26 primary. Sharpton demanded better in November.

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Al Sharpton pushes for higher turnout among black voters