Al Sharpton Quotes (26 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Al Sharpton: 26 quotes0 likes

Famous Al Sharpton Quotes

“I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the [Supreme] court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school.”

Al Sharpton

From the 2004 DNC

“They tried to say that being gay is a sin, and I said that adultery is a sin. Adultery is responsible for breaking up more marriages, but do we put that in the Constitution? It’s absurd.”

Al Sharpton

Remarks announcing the National Action Network anti-homophobia campaign, quoted in Jamal Watson (3 August 2005) "Sharpton Pledges Fight Against Homophobia Among Blacks" New York Sun.

“I'll know how outraged I am when I know how many black people were on those flights.”

Al Sharpton

Attributed as a remark on The O'Reilly Factor on 13 October 2002. There was no episode of "The O'Reilly Factor" on this date.
Misattributed

“If Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”

Al Sharpton

Attributed as a remark during the Crown Heights riot (August 1991), but denied by Sharpton's attorney. See Jake Tapper (20 June 2003) " The Skeletons and Suits in Sharpton's Closet http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/06/20/sharpton" Salon.com. <br class="br">Misattributed

“But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.”

Al Sharpton

From the 2004 DNC

“There is a systemic and methodical strategy to eliminate our people from doing business off 125th Street. I want to make it clear … that we will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.”

Al Sharpton

On the Freddy's Fashion Mart incident, as quoted in National Review (20 March 2000) http://www.nationalreview.com/20Mar00/nordlinger032000.html.

Al Sharpton Quotes

“Who defines terrorists? Today's terrorist is tomorrow's friend. We were the ones that worked with Saddam Hussein. The United States worked with bin Laden.”

Al Sharpton

Democratic presidential candidate debate, Detroit (26 October 2003)

“When he said he was going to stop the march and called it a hate march, I think that was very provocative. The Mayor's statements have created a climate that could possibly lead to some kind of confrontation.”

Al Sharpton

News conference (18 August 1999), prior to the second Million Youth March[citation needed]

“Crime is going down everywhere but in the New York City Police Department.”

Al Sharpton

Protest against the police brutalization of Abner Louima (29 August 1997)[citation needed]

“I want his children to know: wasn't anything strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with.”

Al Sharpton

Eulogy for Michael Jackson at his memorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MAKLq865bk (7 July 2009).

“Tawana Brawley told her story many months before I got involved—and many others got involved, Bill Cosby, and many others, who have never refuted the story. I don't refute it now. I believe … something happened to Tawana Brawley.… There is a problem in this country, that a lot of people don’t believe women. A lot of people don’t believe young women. I took the risk, as I have in most of the civil rights cases I have fought, to stand up for the victim. In this particular case, a jury did not believe her.”

Al Sharpton

NBC's Meet the Press (25 August 2002).

“Mr. President, you said would we have more leverage if both parties got our votes, but we didn't come this far playing political games. It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats. Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of good men, soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us. This vote can't be bargained away. This vote can't be given away. Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.”

Al Sharpton

From the 2004 DNC

“Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African- American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I have raised questions. But let me answer your question. You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule. That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres. We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.”

Al Sharpton

From the 2004 DNC

“I disagree with [Khalid Abdul] Muhammad. I'm against hate, anti-Semitism and homophobia.… This is not a village of hate. It's a village of hope.… Don't let midgets give us a bad name. There are still giants in Harlem giants who will stand up for our children.”

Al Sharpton

First Million Youth March in Harlem, New York (5 September 1998)[citation needed]

“Jim Crow is old. That's not who I'm mindful of today. The problem is that Jim Crow has sons. The one we've got to battle is James Crow Jr., Esq. He's a little more educated. He's a little slicker. He's a little more polished, but the results are the same.”

Al Sharpton

Remarks at the funeral of Rosa Parks (3 November 2005).[citation needed]

“I'm projected as an ambulance chaser, but I'm more the ambulance. People call me because they know I will come.… I have never fought a case where they didn't ask me to come. People have this picture like I'm sitting up in bed at night with a walkie-talkie. "You hear anything? Oh, let's run! It's Virginia today!"… Every victim calls us.… "Who put Sharpton in charge?"”

Al Sharpton

The victim!
Interview by David Shankbone (3 December 2007).

“I disagreed with the grand jury on [Tawana] Brawley. I believed there was enough evidence to go to trial. The grand jury said there wasn’t. OK, fine. Do I have a right to disagree with the grand jury? Many Americans believe O. J. Simpson was guilty. A jury said he wasn’t. So I have as much right to question a jury as they do. Does it make somebody a racist? No! They just disagreed with the jury. So did I.”

Al Sharpton

Interview by David Shankbone (3 December 2007).[citation needed]

“We built pyramids before Donald Trump even knew what architecture was. We taught philosophy and astrology [sic] and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it…Do some cracker come and tell you, ‘Well my mother and father blood go back to the Mayflower,’ you better hold your pocket. That ain’t nothing to be proud of, that means their forefathers was crooks.”

Al Sharpton

Speech at Kean College (1994), transcribed in The Forward (December 1995), as quoted in Foolish Words : The Most Stupid Words Ever Spoken (2003) by Laura Ward, p. 192.

“Though there were over 200 policemen standing around, none of them made a move to grab him.”

Al Sharpton

Go and Tell Pharaoh (1996), on being stabbed by Michael Riccardi.

“I have no problem with Khalid Abdul Muhammad. My problem is with Giuliani. It is not Khalid who is talking hate. It's Rudy Giuliani.”

Al Sharpton

News conference prior to the second Million Youth March[citation needed]

“I do believe the [Democratic] party has moved far to the right. I do believe that the party has a bunch of elephants running around in donkey clothes.”

Al Sharpton

Interview with Robert Novak (January 2003)[citation needed]

“Now that they have achieved the capture of Hussein, they should appeal to the UN to come in with a multilateral redevelopment plan. This is all the more reason this war should come to an immediate end.”

Al Sharpton

Remarks following the capture of Saddam Hussein, quoted in "The Capture of Hussein" (15 December 2003) New York Times p. A19.

“Clearly, [President Bush] lied. Now if he is an unconscious liar, and doesn't realize when he's lying, then we're really in trouble.”

Al Sharpton

Source: Democratic presidental debate at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin held on 15 Feb. 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44506-2004Feb15_4.html.

“What’s wrong with denouncing white interlopers?”

Al Sharpton

As quoted in National Review (20 March 2000).

“Mark Miller is my brother and I love him dearly.”

Al Sharpton

The Richard Bey Show (31 March 1988), accusing Pagones in the alleged gang rape of Tawana Brawley; The Brawley case was later dropped and Pagones sued Sharpton successfully for defamation

“We don’t want to be manipulated by right-wing elitist billionaires or by left-wing guys that don’t understand our life on the ground that is living in fear of crime, that is living as a result of inflation that is killing us in many parts of the country. We need gas to go to work.”

Al Sharpton

“Democratic Outlook for 2022 Midterms” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea8LKGL0xXo MSNBC (April 11, 2022)