If you play the theatrics too much, you get in the way of your own cause.
Al Sharpton

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

It seems some have chosen to ignore or have simply forgotten the big-picture vision promoted by Dr. King and his kin.
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

My ministry's always been one of social activism. I think a responsible minister must be at some levels involved in the social order.
Al Sharpton

My ordination in the Church of God in Christ was at age 9, and I later became a Baptist minister, which I am today.
Al Sharpton

National Action Network, the group I founded, has affiliates or chapters in over 40 cities around the country.
Al Sharpton

One of the reasons I get so much joy out of my own children's childhoods is that I'm having my first childhood myself.
Al Sharpton

The boxing world is full of all kinds of corruption.
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

The promise of America is one immigration policy for all who seek to enter our shores, whether they come from Mexico, Haiti or Canada, there must be one set of rules for everybody. We cannot welcome those to come and then try and act as though any culture will not be respected or treated inferior. We cannot look at the Latino community and preach "one language." No one gave them an English test before they sent them to Iraq to fight for America.
Al Sharpton

The right wing always mobilizes around constitutional amendments: the right to bear arms, school prayer.
Al Sharpton

The United States government has the obligation to educate all young people in this country.
Al Sharpton

The United States has got to adopt a policy of befriending and creating allies around the world.
Al Sharpton

We have defeated Jim Crow, but now we have to deal with his son, James Crow Jr., esquire.
Al Sharpton

We need an amendment that gives us the right to vote protected by the federal government and the Constitution.
Al Sharpton

We're not anti-police... we're anti-police brutality.
Al Sharpton

We're not willing to give black leaders second chances because, in most cases, we're not willing to give them first chances.
Al Sharpton

Who defines terrorists? Today's terrorist is tomorrow's friend.
Al Sharpton