Minister and Political Activist
Background Information
Al Sharpton was born in 1954 in New York City. Renowned as a child prodigy in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood, where his working-class parents raised him, he started preaching at age four and was ordained as a Pentacostal minister at age 10. In his teen years, he was the youth director for Operation Breadbasket, Jesse Jackson’s campaign to economically improve African-American neighborhoods. In the late ’70s he was manager of James Brown’s concert tours. During the ’90s he ran for the U.S. Senate and the New York mayoral office, losing both times. The founder of National Youth Movement and National Action Network, Sharpton has been a consistent leader in political activism focusing on racial, economic and social justice.
Political Allies
Black Enterprise Magazine; The Reverend Floyd D. Harris, Jr., Emmanuel Church of the Nazarene, Fresno, California; Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-NY)
Political Fumbles
In 1989 Sharpton was charged with 67 counts of larceny, fraud and felony tax evasion relating to the National Youth Movement. Although acquitted on all of those counts, Sharpton pled guilty four years later to not filing a New York state income tax return and was convicted of a misdemeanor.
Issues at a glance A: Occupation of Iraq B: Economy C: Environment D: Health Care E: Civil Liberties
A: A staunch opponent of the Iraq War, Sharpton believes that Bush’s pre-emptive war doctrine is dangerous. He says that the war has weakened the United Nations and the structure of international law. He has also criticized the administration for capturing Osama Bin Laden. At Sep. 9′s Congressional Black Caucus Institute Debate, Sharpton said, “As president, I would have become involved only if there were American lives at stake. I would not run around trying to be the world’s bully.”
B: He wants to balance the budget by repealing the Bush tax cuts, invest in job development and increase funding for social services. Sharpton is a traditional economic liberal.
C: MoveOn.org quotes Sharpton saying, “Converting our economy to renewable fuels as rapidly as practical and feasible would be one of my top priorities. I believe that protecting the environment is also labor intensive. Thus, creating a clean, safe and sustainable environment would also create jobs, not cost jobs.”
D: Sharpton wants to establish a national single-payer universal health care plan. He also believes there should be a constitutional amendment guaranteeing all Americans the right to health care.
E: In an interview with finalcall.com, Sharpton criticized the PATRIOT Act saying, “To say that the attorney general at his sole discretion has the right to eavesdrop through wiretapping on lawyer/client conversations is absurd and it is a police state mentality. To say they have the right to detain people without charging them [means] they have just totally torn up parts of the constitution.”
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December 12, 2003
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