Talk about America great. Great for who? We’ll make America great for everybody the first time. Never was great for blacks. Never was great for Latinos. Wasn’t great for women. – Al Sharpton Baptist minister and civil rights activist at George Floyd memorial service in Minneapolis.
George Floyd’s story has been the story of Black folks. We could never be who we wanted and dreamed to be is you kept your knee on our neck. It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say, ‘Get your knee off our necks!’ – Al Sharpton
If you can get the proper definition of trouble, then we can find out who the real troublemakers are. – Al Sharpton
I’ve learned how to measure what I say. Al Sharpton in 1986 was trying to be heard. I was a local guy and was like, ‘Y’all are ignoring us.’ – Al Sharpton
I’ve never done anything else in my life other than preach and be an activist. Way before I was known. – Al Sharpton
I could have easily been a statistic. Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., it was easy – a little too easy – to get into trouble. Surrounded by poor schools, lack of resources, high unemployment rates, poverty, gangs and more, I watched as many of my peers fell victim to a vicious cycle of diminished opportunities and imprisonment. – Al Sharpton
My organization, National Action Network (NAN), was on the ground talking and meeting with people in Ferguson, just as we did in Staten Island following Eric Garner’s death. – Al Sharpton
The resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder is met with both pride and disappointment by the Civil Rights community. We are proud that he has been the best Attorney General on Civil Rights in U.S. history and disappointed because he leaves at a critical time when we need his continued diligence most. – Al Sharpton
Let me be clear: as I have said repeatedly, I do not believe that all police officers are bad, nor do I believe that most are bad. But there must be a transparent, impartial and fair system to judge those that engage in criminal or unethical acts. – Al Sharpton
The United States government has the obligation to educate all young people in this country. – Al Sharpton
Throughout my years championing for civil rights, analyzing politics and advocating on behalf of the voiceless, I am disturbed the most when harmless children suffer because of politics or detrimental policies. – Al Sharpton
Civilians are arrested every single day – including innocent ones – and they must wait until their day in court in order to argue their side of the story. Police officers must be subjected to the same rules. – Al Sharpton
Either we need to redefine what probable cause means and say that police are not subject to it, or we arrest officers right away just as we would with any other person accused of committing a crime. Either we write new laws or enforce existing ones; we cannot have it both ways. – Al Sharpton
If Charlton Heston can have a constitutional right carry a rifle, why can’t grandma have a constitutional right to health care? – Al Sharpton
My message to everyone: the next time you hear about migrant children near the border, just picture them as your own. Then think what you would want our government to do. – Al Sharpton
I was there during the first elections in South Africa. I watched them take down the apartheid flag and raise the new flag. – Al Sharpton
In 1999, I was in St. Louis with Martin Luther King III as we led protests against the state’s failure to hire minority contractors for highway construction projects. We went at dawn on a summer day with over a thousand people and performed acts of civil disobedience. – Al Sharpton
I’ve seen enough things to know that if you just keep on going, if you turn the corner, the sun will be shining. – Al Sharpton
James Brown became my father. He would talk to me the way a father talked to a son. He became the father I never had. – Al Sharpton
If companies can refuse to provide coverage for women, what other objections to the Affordable Care Act will we see based on ‘religious grounds’? For that matter, will ‘religious freedom’ be used as an excuse to discriminate against other minorities and disenfranchised groups across the board? Where will it end? – Al Sharpton
We need an amendment that gives us the right to vote protected by the federal government and the Constitution. – Al Sharpton
In Staten Island, when you have video showing the alleged chokehold used on Eric Garner, why not go to trial and have the officer(s) explain the tape, and then this jury can determine guilt or innocence? The tape should guarantee that there should be a trial. – Al Sharpton
In Ferguson, there are witnesses who say Brown had his hands up when he was shot. That should be enough probable cause to go to trial to then determine if Officer Wilson is guilty or not. It is at trial that he can then defend himself and his attorneys can present their own witnesses and their own defense. – Al Sharpton
The dream was not to put one black family in the White House, the dream was to make everything equal in everybody’s house. – Al Sharpton
In every era going back to Lincoln with Frederick Douglass, presidents talk to those that were leading at that time. – Al Sharpton
When you loot or behave violently, you give grounds to those that try to justify illegal police abuse. You become the poster child for them to say, ‘See, we have no choice but to shoot and kill, or use a chokehold, because just look at the way they behave.’ – Al Sharpton