38 Al Sharpton Quotes

Al Sharpton quotes

1. '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.'

2. '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.'

3. 'What's wrong with denouncing white interlopers?'

4. '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.'

5. '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.'

6. '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.'

7. '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.'

8. '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.'

9. '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.'

10. 'I believe something happened to Tawana Brawley. . . I think it is absurd that someone would say that a 15-year-old girl could have made all that up, including fooling a hospital.'

11. '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.'

12. 'If the Jews want to get it on,' he said, 'tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.'

13. 'We stated openly that Steven Pagones did it. If we're lying, sue us, so we can go into court with you and prove you did it. Sue us - sue us right now.'

14. 'Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.'

15. Regarding Michael Riccardi's attempt on his life:

16. Regarding the Democratic party:

17. Regarding the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina:

18. Regarding police brutality:

19. Regarding racism in America:

20. Regarding terrorists:

21. Regarding achievement in black history:

1. When a mother or father is willing to pay smugglers and risk the lives of their own children by sending them on a dangerous journey to the U.S. with no guarantees, you know the situation must be dire. As the most powerful nation on earth, we must do better than creating a climate of hatred against innocent souls who only want a chance to grow up.

2. 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.

3. Bill Clinton strikes me as the kind of guy who goes wherever the polls lead him, rather than leading the polls.

4. I feel that it is our moral obligation to stand and to be courageous with these families, and particularly Cindy, that have become the conscience of this nation.

5. Getting Democrats organized is like herding cats.

6. I'm very cautious and very concerned about what I have initially seen, but I also believe we've got to organize like we have never organized before.We talk about it, but realistically, we've got to organize at the grassroots level.

7. 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.

8. I need to hear something about how he's going to bring people together in the spirit, hopefully, of Martin Luther King Jr., and if that's not heard, then we've got to constantly challenge him.

9. The Democratic Party hasn't whipped anybody into a frenzy. The assumption is that the people that are marching and protesting and standing up against this don't have enough sense to stand up for their own interests.

10. 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.

11. It does not appear, nor is there any reason to believe that [ Jeff Sessions] will put policing reform front and center in the way that this justice department has, and that will mean that we cast aside eight years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears that have gone into bringing cities and mayors and communities to the table to address what truly is a national crisis.

12. I can call a march, and thousands come out, and I happen to have access to the White House at the same time.

13. 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.'

14. I've seen too much in life to give up.

15. I can't see how an unarmed man rejecting a drug deal ended up dead.

16. 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.

17. It was better walk with dignity than ride in shame. A lot of people in Cincinnati are saying, "Rather than have the continual problems of police brutality and economic disparity, I'm willing to make some sacrifices." And I think that they ought to be respected for doing that.