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Jul 23

Rev. Al Sharpton is the founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), a not-for-profit civil rights organization based in Harlem, New York, with over 47 Chapters nationwide. As one of the nations most-renowned civil rights leaders, Rev. Sharpton has been praised by President Barack Obama as the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden, and by former President George W. Bush who said that Al cares just as much as I care about making sure every child learns to read, write, add and subtract.

Recently featured on the cover of Newsweek Magazine, the opening sentence in the story echoed what many have said about him even since he was a child prodigy: If the Rev. Al Sharpton didnt exist, he would have to be invented. The Wall Street Journal in a cover story said Rev. Al Sharpton has grown from the premier politician of protest to the ultimate political pragmatist (Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2010), and this year, Rev Al Sharpton was selected to be profiled in a cover story in Ebony Magazine along with 7 others, including President Barack Obama, for the Ebony magazine Power 150 Edition.

In the October 19th, 2009 issue of New York Magazine, Rev. Sharpton was featured as the only African-American listed among the Top 12 Most Powerful People in New York City. A USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted in July 2008 called Rev. Sharpton the leader in the country that Blacks turn to speak for them on the issue of race, second only to then Senator Barack Obama. In February 2007, Rev. Sharpton was called the most prominent civil rights activist in the nation by the New York Daily News.

Whether it was his noteworthy Presidential run as a candidate for the Democratic Party in 2004, or his compelling speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, Reverend Sharpton has had an irrefutable impact on national politics and civil rights because of his strong commitment to equality and progressive politics. In April of 2001, Coretta Scott King hailed him as a voice for the oppressed, a leader who has protested injustice with a passionate and unrelenting commitment to nonviolent action in the spirit and tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. 47-years after the historic March on Washington where her late husband Dr. King delivered his I Have a Dream Speech, Rev. Sharpton and National Action Network recently led 30,000 people in the Reclaim the Dream rally and march.

Rev. Sharpton is a leader on issues regarding education and the fight to ensure equity in the U.S. education system that continues to fail its highest-need students, despite the 55 years that have lapsed since Brown v. Board of Education. President Barack Obama echoed this in his address at the NAACP 100thAnniversary Celebration when he exclaimed the state of our schools is not an African American problem; it is an American problem. Because if Black and Brown children cannot compete, then America cannot compete. And let me say this, if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg, and Newt Gingrich can agree that we need to solve the education problem, then thats something all of America can agree we can solve. Those guys came into my office. Just sitting in the Oval Office I kept on doing a double-take. So thats a sign of progress and it is a sign of the urgency of the education problem. All of us can agree that we need to offer every child in this country every child -(President Barack Obama, July 16, 2009)

Throughout his career, Rev. Al Sharpton has challenged the American political establishment to include all people regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, or beliefs. In fact, few political figures have been more visible than Rev. Sharpton in the last two decades. Rev. Sharptons oratory skills have served as a platform for making changes in the American social and political establishment. He is a nationally-syndicated radio host, T.V. personality, and columnist. He has four popular radio shows broadcast throughout the country, a nationally syndicated television show, and a column that appears in national newspapers across the country. He held billions of people spellbound as he delivered a riveting memorial for the King of Pop Michael Jacksona close friend to Rev. Sharpton and National Action Network and he gave a heartfelt and memorable eulogy at Michael Jacksons private burial. On two occasions in 2002, Michael came to NANs House of Justice to discuss artists rights and fairness in the entertainment industry.

Born on October 3, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York, Al Sharpton began his ministry at the tender age of four, preaching his first sermon at Washington Temple Church of God & Christ in Brooklyn. Just five years later, the Washington Temple churchs legendary Bishop F.D. Washington licensed Al Sharpton, his protg, to be a Pentecostal minister.

Rev. Sharptons civil rights career began almost as early as his ministry. At thirteen, Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Jones appointed Sharpton youth director of New Yorks SCLC Operation Breadbasket, an organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1971.

At the age of sixteen, Sharpton founded the National Youth Movement, Inc. which organized young people around the country to push for increased voter registration, cultural awareness, and job training programs. It was at that time that he forged a friendship with Teddy Brown, the son of the Godfather of Soul James Brown. Tragically, Teddy was killed in a car accident and, in the months that followed his passing, James Brown took Reverend Sharpton in as though he was his own and they developed an inexplicable bond. Rev. Sharpton was shaped by his surrogate father Mr. Brown who taught him, You cant set your sights on nothing little; you got to go for the whole hog. Later Rev. Sharpton went on the road with James Brown and served as his tour manager. From 1994 to 1998, Rev. Sharpton served as the Director of the Ministers Division for the National Rainbow Push coalition under Rev. Jackson.

Early in his career, Rev. Sharpton set out to stoke the fire of the civil rights movement as the voice of the downtrodden, leading marches and rallies to call the public and the medias attention to racial injustice. Rev. Sharptons direct action movements have been credited with inspiring laws on racial profiling and he has influenced police department reform across the nation while working to end police misconduct. Recent cases that Rev. Sharpton has been at the forefront of include the Jena Six case, the Sean Bell case, the Omar Edwards case, and the Troy Davis case. Past cases include the cases of Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima and Patrick Dorismond, to name a few.

Rev. Sharpton has also been at the vanguard of issues promoting equal standards and decency. He has held people accountable for perpetrating negative and racist stereotypes. He confronted the NY Post when they chose to print a controversial cartoon with racist undertones. He has called upon the recording industry to have standards for artists that dont include the use of the N, B and H words. Reverend Sharptons integral efforts in getting radio host Don Imus off the air after the shock jock referred to players on the Rutgers womens college basketball team as nappy-headed hos has further proven that Rev. Sharpton is an invaluable leader and his successful efforts to mobilize a broad coalition of prominent public figures urging the removal of Don Imus from the airwaves was nearly universally praised, receiving the support from newspaper editorial boards across the country and presidential candidates Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama.

Rev. Sharpton was recently in the forefront of the successful effort to block radio commentator Rush Limbaugh from inclusion in a group of investors striving to buy the Saint Louis Rams due to his history of divisiveness and his penchant for making derogatory comments about players that are anti-NFL and racially charged. In response to his effort to have Mr. Limbaugh sacked, MSNBC television host and political commentator Chris Matthews said of Rev. Sharpton: Im just saying you are a powerful voice in this country. When you speak out, lets face it, the buildings shake. People do listen to you. You had a lot to do with the noise level here.(October 15, 2009).

In the business world Rev. Sharpton has been successful in getting the private sector to engage in billions of dollars in contracts with minority communities. Sharptons stance on behalf of the disenfranchised has taken him, in his own words, from the streets to the suites. In 1999, in a united voice with African -American advertising agencies and marketing and media outlets, he launched the Madison Avenue Initiative (MAI) to ensure that those who do business with advertising outlets around the country deal even-handedly with agencies, media outlets and publications run by people of color. Sharptons work with the MAI has targeted major corporations, including PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive, Microsoft, and others, who have subsequently extended their advertising dollars to reach more of African-American and Hispanic communities.

Rev. Sharpton is a champion for human rights and is passionate about the key issues that involve confronting human rights violations. One of his career highlights has been contributing to the end of the United States Navy exercises in Vieques, Puerto Rico, which proved to be poisoning the environment on the island.

Rev. Sharpton says his religious convictions are the basis for his life and on most Sundays he preaches to congregations across the nation. Rev. Sharpton has two daughters from his marriage to Kathy Jordan Sharpton, Dominique and Ashley. Dominique works as the Membership Director for National Action Network and produces NANs weekly live radio broadcast. Ashley currently attends college at Hampton University.

Rev. Sharpton was educated in New York public schools and attended Brooklyn College. He has an honorary degree from A.P. Bible College.

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Rev. Al Sharpton | NAN - National Action Network

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a former White House adviser during Barack Obamas presidency, hit the airwaves and called out Empire actor Jussie Smollett, saying that he shouldface accountability to the maximum should the allegations that Smollett staged a hate crime in January be proved true.

On Sunday, Sharpton, a prominent and vocal civil rights activist, decried Smolletts alleged actions and slammed the actor on his political MSNBC talk show, Politics Nation.

I, among many others when hearing of the report, said that the reports were horrific and that we should come with all that we can come with in law enforcement to find out what happened and the guilty should suffer the maximum, he said.

Sharpton continued on in the segment, saying he still maintained his view and that if Smollett and the others allegedly involved did in some way perpetuate something that is not true that they should face accountability to the maximum.

Sharpton echoed these statements to reporters at a lunch in Harlem with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)

Whoever is wrong should pay the maximum, Sharpton said. If Smollettis wrong, he ought to face accountability to the maximum.

When asked about the Smollett case, however, Harris the former California attorney general who, in a tweet, had referred to the alleged assault as a modern day lynching outright ignored reporters, insteadopting to rushto her car and giving Sharpton a hug before leaving.

When asked about the tweet at a campaign event on Tuesday, Harris froze and looked to her campaign advisers before saying she thinks that the facts are still unfolding and that she was very concerned about Smolletts initial allegation.

She went on to say:

And its something we should all take seriously whenever anyone, um, alleges that kind of behavior, but there should be an investigation. And I think that once the investigation has concluded then we can all comment, but Im not going to comment until I know the outcome of the investigation.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), another Democratic presidential primary candidate, also backtracked from his initial comments regarding the case in which he called the vicious attack on Smollett a modern-day lynching. Booker said he would withhold further comments until after all the information actually comes out from on-the-record sources.

Smollett, who is black and gay, was arrested Thursday by Chicago police and charged with filing a false police report as well as felony disorderly conduct.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnsonblasted Smollett on Thursday, saying in a press conference that Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.

In January, Smollett approached police and alleged that he was assaulted by two men who lobbed racial and anti-gay slurs at the actor while yelling This is MAGA country before pouring bleach on him and tying a noose around his neck.

If found guilty, according to NBC Chicago, Smollett could face up to three years in prison.

Original post:
Al Sharpton Calls Out 'Empire' Actor Jussie Smollet Over Claims

The Tawana Brawley case that captivated New York in the late eighties is a shocking reminder of the toxic mix racial exploitation and personal ambition can produce. The New York Times and Retroreport.org have just released a new 15-minute documentary on the despicable hoax, which should be required viewing for the NBC News executives who are heavily invested in rehabilitating a key culprit of this loathsome episode: the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Brawley was 15 years old in 1987, when she was found in her hometown of Wappingers Falls, New York, with Bitch, KKK, and N***r written on her stomach, her jeans burnt in the crotch, feces in her hair, and her tennis shoes sliced open. She said that she had been abducted and raped by a group of white men.

A trio of increasingly prominent, and radical, New York City black activists represented her and her family: attorneys Alton Maddox and C. Vernon Mason and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Brawley told them said that a cop had been one of her attackers, and Sharpton named that officer as Harry Crist Jr., a police officer from a nearby town who had committed suicide shortly after Brawley was found. Sharpton also named a local prosecutor, Steven Pagones, as one of the attackers. He offered no proof.

Gov. Mario Cuomo dispatched a veteran prosecutor, Jack Ryan, to handle the case. Brawley and her advisers refused to cooperate in any way with Ryan and his team. That was the decision of the lawyers, Sharpton says defensively in the Times interview. When asked why Brawleys team would not meet with New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams, Sharpton said it would be like asking someone who watched someone killed in the gas chamber to sit down with Mr. Hitler. Sharpton later accused Ryan of kicking a blind man in a scuffle with demonstrators. Ryan was nowhere near the scene.

After a six-month investigation a grand jury found that the entire episode had been a hoax, with Brawley having defaced herself to avoid the wrath of her stepfather after staying out late to visit a boyfriend.

Subsequently, both of her attorneys had their law licenses revoked (Mason for unrelated reasons) and Sharpton was found guilty of defamation in a lawsuit brought by prosecutor Steven Pagones, who quickly had been able to establish he had been nowhere near the scene of the alleged crime.

The Times documentary shows a wild-eyed Sharpton responding indignantly to a reporters question of what proof he had of the policemans guilt: I have Tawana Brawleys words, he sneers.

Instead of apologizing, Sharpton still asserts, a quarter century later, that he deserves credit for standing by the teen, asserting darkly in the Times documentary, something happened.

The Brawley case inflamed racial tensions in America and left victims like the falsely accused Pagones in its wake. But it helped launch Sharptons career. Instead of an isolated incident of bad judgment and hysteria, Sharptons behavior in the Brawley case is part of a life-long pattern.

Sharpton was a key player inflaming the 1991 Crown Heights riots following the death of a young African-American who was hit by an ambulance driven by a Hasidic driver. Sharpton called Jews diamond merchants with the blood of innocent babies on their hands. A mob subsequently attacked and murdered an innocent Hasidic Jewish student visiting from Australia. (Twenty-five years later, he wrote a mealy-mouthed not-quite apology for his rhetoric.)

A few years later, an African-American Pentecostal church asked a Jewish tenant of a church-owned property, Freddie Fashions Mart, to evict one of his subtenants, an African-American-run record store. Sharpton led protests crying, We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business. One of the protesters attacked Freddie Fashion Mart, shot several customers, and started a fire that killed seven employees.

There are a lot of angry, twisted individuals in America and Sharpton is hardly alone in having spent decades vomiting hate, leaving innocent victims in his wake. What distinguishes Sharpton is the willingness of powerful people and organizations to look past the hate when they believe it may benefit them.

The Democratic Party and its candidates for president in 2004 were perfectly content to have Sharpton appear in presidential debates. Not one candidate called Sharpton out for his outrageous history of hate.

And today one of the great American news organizations, NBC News, is spending millions of dollars to rehabilitate and promote Al Sharpton. Americans have been pretty good at sniffing out and discarding haters, but here is Al Sharpton on NBC and MSNBC being promoted as a credible source of information. Sharpton has gone from manipulating the news with vile accusations to delivering the news for NBC. When the Boston-bombing story broke, there was Al Sharpton delivering breaking news for MSNBC.

You would think that if he sold you such a terrible bill of goods for such a giant story that dominated the news for such a long time, says former Village Voice journalist Wayne Barrett in the Times documentary, speaking to his journalist brethren, that you would not show up at his next news conference with a camera.

NBC has gone far beyond showing up. They have made the ethical and news judgment that Al Sharpton should be a credible news source for Americans. They have the right to make that decision, but what about the reason?

Heres a simple test that doesnt involve market research or complicated board meetings. If you are an NBC exec and have kids, sit down with them and watch the Times documentary on Tawana Brawley. And when your kids ask why your colleague Al Sharpton is working for NBC, you can explain to them why everything youve tried to teach them about honesty, fair play, and decency is wrong and Al Sharpton is right.

Good luck.

Originally posted here:
Al Sharptons Long Bill of Goods, From Tawana Brawley to ...

The Rev. Al Sharptonon Sunday said that Jussie Smollett should face "accountability to the maximum" if it's found the actor staged an attackhe claimed was perpetrated by men yelling racist and homophobic language.

I, among many others when hearing of the report, said that the reports were horrific and that we should come with all that we can come with in law enforcement to find out what happened and the guilty should suffer the maximum, Sharpton, a longtime civil rights activist, said on his MSNBC program, "Politics Nation."

I still maintain that, he continued. And if it is that Smollett and these gentlemen did in some way perpetuate something that is not true, they ought to face accountability to the maximum."

Sharpton then dismissed that the new developments in Smollett's case represented a "left-wing hoax," noting that President TrumpDonald John TrumpMcCabe says he was fired because he 'opened a case against' Trump McCabe: Trump said 'I don't care, I believe Putin' when confronted with US intel on North Korea McCabe: Trump talked to me about his election victory during 'bizarre' job interview MORE was among the people to call out what was initially thought to be a heinous crime.

He also said that people had reason to stand behind the "Empire" cast member given his career as an actor and activist.

Smollett told Chicago police that he was assaulted around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29 by two men who placed a rope around his neck and beat him with their fists. He alleged at the time that the two men, who he said were wearing masks, poured an unknown chemicalon him, according to reports.

Multiple law enforcement officials familiar with a probe into the attack told CNN on Saturday that police believed Smollett paid two men to carry out the assault.

"We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation," the Chicago Police Department said in a statement. "We've reached out to the Empire cast member's attorney to request a follow-up interview."

CNN reported that police arrested two brothers on Wednesday in connection to their investigation. But the men were released after the discovery of "new evidence." The men are reportedly cooperating with law enforcement.

Smollet has denied that he played any part in the attack.

"As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with," Smollett's attorney said in a statement to CNN. "He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying."

See the article here:
Al Sharpton calls for Jussie Smollett to face accountability ...

I think as the inheritor of Jesse Jackson's mantle as President of Black America that ol' Rev. Al has taken on some of Jesse's less savory practices.

For instance, they both are experts at shaking down corporations by threatening boycotts, marches, etc. if the corp.s don't do what they're told; that is, do a little of this and a little of that and, oh, by the way, make a "contribution" to the organization of which I just happen to be the head. In Jackson's case that would be The Rainbow Coalition. I don't know what ol' Rev. Al calls his gang.

Ol' Al is about as much a Reverend as I am. He's nothing more than a "colorful" shakedown artist that the press is happy to put on the screen from time-to-time 'cause he's good for ratings. I'd just love to see a list of his actual, meaningful accomplishments - I wonder if there are any at all.

And if you ever see ol' Rev. Al, tell him Fast Eddie B says "How's Tawana Brawley doin', Rev.?" and then duck real quick 'cause I hear the boy has a mean left hook. That should REALLY make his day!

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Rev. Al Sharpton? | Yahoo Answers