Al sharpton quotes

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

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.

When you're dealing with boycotts, you don't need everyone. You just need enough to be effective.

If O.J. had been accused of killing his black wife, you would not have seen the same passion stirred up.

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?" The victim!

I think everybody understood what happened, why this consent decree came about after the Freddie Gray situation. There was tension on both sides.

There are white n*ggers. I've seen a lot of white n*ggers in my time.

People have a right to be nervous and fearful. They heard what Trump said during the campaign and are wondering if he`ll follow through on his promises.

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

I understand deficit spending. I was born in deficit spending.

John Lewis being attacked as "talk, talk, talk" by president-elect [Donald] Trump because he said he didn`t consider him a legitimate president.

We cannot move forward or will not move forward if we are divided.

While the rest of the country waves the flag of Americana, we understand we are not part of that. We don't owe America anything - America owes us.

I just released an op-ed in the "Washington Post" that talks about providing an I.D. so that everyone can have an I.D., primarily, the social security card, a picture would be put on that card, and a president can certainly by executive order make this happen so that people will not need a special I.D. They`ll have one to vote.

We may switch presidents, but we`re just going to switch legs and keep on marching.

During my 2004 presidential campaign, I was fond of saying that it was high time for the Christian right to meet the right Christians.

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

I disagree with 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.

As I often say, we have come a long way from the days of slavery, but in 2014, discrimination and inequality still saturate our society in modern ways. Though racism may be less blatant now in many cases, its existence is undeniable.

You can't get a solution if you won't talk to the people that have the problem. You can't ever have healing if the patient is left out of the operation room.

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.

John Lewis is an icon in our society.

As I ran for president, I hoped that one child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across the stage with governors and senators and know they didn't have to be a drug dealer, they didn't have to be a hoodlum, they didn't have to be a gangster. They could stand up from a broken home, on welfare, and they could run for president of the United States.

The GOP's freak out over Donald Trump. Just two months to Iowa, can anyone stop him?

President Obama telling Americans not to panic in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

I won vice president of my student body in high school. That doesn't mean anything.

If a cop sees a person running out of a store with a gun he's seeing a crime. He's not seeing a person standing.

I think that you can't choose leadership. You have to deal with the leadership that the people respond to.

People in the age of [President] Obama don't dress like they did in the age of [Lyndon] Johnson. That's for sure.

I'm a patriot in the truest sense of the word.

We`re going to continue to move forward and fight. I just think that, unfortunately, the president-elect [Donald Trump] has chosen to address every issue.

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

I've never seen an effective boycott that didn't work.

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

Dr. King's general principles are universal. But the things he confronted took place in another era.

We just have to hope and pray that this man [Donald Trump] is changed in terms of how he views the world community.

I cannot imagine where we would have been without BET. Many like me who operate in black America can only get our balanced story told nationally on BET talk shows.

So (if) 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.

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

I do believe that the party has a bunch of elephants running around in donkey clothes.

One of the things that`s offensive is saying in the fifth district there`s nothing going on. This is a very vast district. The congressman happens to represent me. And while there are always more things that we can do in every community, this is a very diverse district with all kinds of wonderful things.

I've never done anything else in my life other than preach and be an activist. Way before I was known.

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

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.

If I use the media, even with tricks, to publicize a black youth being shot in the back in Teaneck, New Jersey... then I should be praised for it, and it's more of a comment on them than me that it would take tricks to make them cover the loss of life.

I always go by instinct and then wrestle with where by instinct brought me.

I very rarely read any fiction. I love biographies; I read about all kinds of people. I love theology and some philosophy.

America has to make America become a better place for all Americans, and that`s all of us participating.

I think drugs affect poor people and people of color more than anyone.

Some issues you just - you certainly you have to defend yourself, but you certainly don`t have to denigrate others.

Let me just say that we are under the consent decree. There are people in our city [Baltimore] along with the police department and advocates who believe that this is absolutely the right thing to do.

I have the right to express myself. Once we get through expressing, do we really move forward in society.

John Lewis we all know was beaten terribly, almost to an inch of his life, opened doors that will never be closed, although there are forces that are attempting to close those doors.

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

I think that what we want to do as we continue to move forward is look at the various points that have been made.We`re looking forward to the appointment of a monitor so that we can continue to do some of the things that we`ve been doing.

America can't work for only some people and become a dream for all people. It has to work for everyone. And even though everyone might not end up at the same place, if everyone starts with the same beginning, then that's the dream fulfilled. We all don't have the same abilities, but we should have the same opportunities.

I`m deeply concerned about Jeff Sessions, who has clearly expressed opposition to the use of consent decrees and has advanced a lot of this states` rights rhetoric.

James Brown lives, as long as someone steps out of their body and dances uncontrollably.

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

It`s a difficult thing for a city to be sued by the department of justice and to be told that your police department is systematically failing to serve the people of the state or the city.

I've never seen a prosecutor hold a press conference to discredit the victim.

My dad challenged every president from President [Dwight] Eisenhower and Vice President [Richard] Nixon to President [J.F] Kennedy, Vice President [Lindon] Johnson to President Johnson and Vice President [Hubert] Humphrey. It`s challenging the administrations to do the right thing.

I think that any time you look at the fact that boycotts have historically led to change, whatever temporary inconvenience there may be, it in the long run leads toward, in my opinion, a better change for everybody.

Evangelicals catapulted George W. Bush back to the White House.

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.

We need to make some real fundamental change from the Constitution down in this country.

Life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.

We blacks had problems in the '60s and we solved them by marching. We've still got problems - let's march.

Dr. King used Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and to passive resistance.

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

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.

I think first of all, the United States has got to adopt a policy of befriending and creating allies around the world.

I believed there was enough evidence to go to trial. Grand jury said there wasn't. Okay, 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.

So we want to make sure that happens is that we build a relationship with the police department and the community that results in better policing and better cooperation with the community.

As a Baptist minister, I don't have the right to impose my views on anyone else. If committed gay and lesbian couples want to marry, that is their business; none of us should stand in their way

I grew up in the 1950s and '60s, when it was almost a holiday when a black act would go on Ed Sullivan.

The Baltimore Police Department had engaged in a pattern of practice of conduct that violated the constitution and federal law, and this conduct had eroded trust and to deprive the people of Baltimore of the rights and the protections guaranteed to every American.

But resist we much. We must and we will much about that be committed.

When we look back at the last years of justice department, some of the most important work that will define its legacy is the work that was done to address the problem of policing reform. Almost two dozen investigations across the country over the last eight years into - not just Baltimore, but Chicago and Baltimore and New Orleans.

Somebody had to bring the truth to the doorstep of this president.

We must become the United States of America that represents every community, that represents every individual. And we will ultimately become a stronger nation, but right now we are a divided nation.

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

On Saturday of MLK weekend, just days before the inauguration, thousands of people joined me in the nation`s capital to protect the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The icy rain did not deter us as we reminded Donald Trump and other leaders that we will not be silenced.

Jeff Sessions, the person who`s likely to become our next attorney general, is striking a very different tone from our current attorney general, Loretta Lynch, who announced a consent decree with the city of Baltimore.

I wanted to say to Governor Dean, don't be hard on yourself about hooting and hollering. If I had spent the money you did and got 18 percent, I'd still be in Iowa hooting and hollering.

We've got to look toward two years from now [January 2017] to at least provide some balance in congress.

I`m not as concerned about what Mr. [Jeff] Sessions expressed, except for the fact that he did say that, you know, these things would be enforced.

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.

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.

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

I`m very cautious about what appears to be things put in place that will begin to roll back some of the progress that I believe we`ve made.

It is time to bring down the volume and bring up the program.

This is not about what party you're part of. This is about right and wrong, ... the conscience of this nation.

There are now that 20 consent decrees in place like the one in Baltimore that are helping put broken police departments on a path to reform. And this is long work. Baltimore is just embarking down this road.

The dream was not to put one black family in the White House, the dream was to make everything equal in everybody's house.

I remember the president-elect [Donald Trump] saying that I`m going to do something to dramatically, positively change communities, particularly in urban areas, and I think we`ve got to hold his feet to the fire to all those issues as well as all the issues that you addressed, you and many others addressed yesterday as it relates to criminal justice, as it relates to voting oppression.

What’s wrong with denouncing white interlopers?

This is not just an agreement for the police department, this is an agreement that gets the police department working with the community and the community understanding its role as it continues to work with the police department.

I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table. But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.

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

How do you make things fair?

I am in hell already. I am in Israel.

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

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.

Senator [Jeff] Sessions says people, cities sign these decrees because they don`t want to be sued by the justice department, as if he is, in some ways, questioning whether the things that are in these decrees are necessary and warranted.

A war of words escalated between the president-elect and a civil rights icon. Donald Trump fired back at democratic Congressman John Lewis after Lewis said he did not see Trump as a legitimate president.

Getting Democrats organized is like herding cats.

When the civil rights community raised a lot of concerns around the nomination of Mr. Sessions, Senator Sessions, one of the things was that he`s on record of saying things intrusive, like voting rights,that he doesn`t believe the federal government should interfere with local policing, almost like states` rights kind of rhetoric.

I've seen enough things to know that if you just keep on going, if you turn the corner, the sun will be shining.

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

I think that whoever is the attorney general, you don't want them to be as a yes person for any particular constituency.

White folks was in the caves while we [blacks] was building empires ... We built pyramids before Donald Trump ever knew what architecture was ... we taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.

First and foremost, that I will, obviously, be the president of all the people, as opposed to one segment. When you look at some of the appointments, there`s great concern because does it really represent all the people, and somehow figuring out how to bring the nation together.

If Charlton Heston can have a constitutional right carry a rifle, why can't grandma have a constitutional right to health care?

We won`t back down! We won`t be trumped!

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.

The unfortunate part is there`s not enough balance in the legislative chambers, and particularly the senate that has to do that confirmation for there to be enough pushback.

People working at the arenas are not just depending on one or two concerts. I think it gives a symbolic boost, as well as those shows do bring down some monetary investments in the city.

I haven't done the things I've done to be in a sitcom.

Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases.

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

I think you don't support people based on one or two cases of situations. You deal with their balance over the long run.

Don't talk to us like we ignint!

I don't think Dr. King helped racial harmony, I think he helped racial justice. What I profess to do is help the oppressed and if I cause a load of discomfort in the white community and the black community, that in my opinion means I'm being effective, because I'm not trying to make them comfortable. The job of an activist is to make people tense and cause social change.

Better to die of something than to die in old age of nothing.