Top 55 Al Sharpton Quotes

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

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

In New York, you are competing with Times Square lights and all of that, so you’ve got to be 300 pounds and crazy to get anyone’s attention. Then, you can refine yourself. I always knew under those 300 pounds and tracksuits was a refined, slim, dignified man.

From racial profiling and being pulled over just for ‘driving while black’ to this new phenomenon of killing unarmed people out of some preconceived idea of fear, our lives and our children’s lives are not being valued.

I actually lost more weight than I am!

When we look at the situation in Ferguson, Missouri and the tragic death of Michael Brown, we are reminded of the importance of who we elect to our city councils, who sits on our local board of education committees, who we pick to represent us in Congress, in the Senate and more.

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

Civilians are arrested every single day – including innocent ones – and they must wait until their day in court in order to argue their side of the story. Police officers must be subjected to the same rules.

It is up to us to change laws on the books like ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws and push elected officials to enact regulations that hold police officers to the same standards as the rest of society. This is why we vote.

Everything from who sits on your local board of education to the prosecutors and judicial appointments in your area and much more are all impacted by who holds political office.

My organization, National Action Network (NAN), was on the ground talking and meeting with people in Ferguson, just as we did in Staten Island following Eric Garner’s death.

Like myself, President Obama is the father of two daughters. He understands the obstacles that they face as women, but he also understands the emergency of the state of young black men in America.

Not graduating high school on time leads to fewer chances of attending college and obtaining good paying jobs, and creates instead higher chances of incarceration and unemployment.

We are engaged in immediate conversations with the White House on deliberations over a successor whom we hope will continue in the general direction of Attorney General Holder.

When you loot or behave violently, you give grounds to those that try to justify illegal police abuse. You become the poster child for them to say, ‘See, we have no choice but to shoot and kill, or use a chokehold, because just look at the way they behave.’

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.

The horrific cases in Ferguson, in Staten Island with the death of Eric Garner, and all across the country serve as stark reminders that we must have a say in who polices us, and how that policing is done. We must, we must, let our voices be heard on Election Day.

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.

As I stood and gave the eulogy for young Michael Brown last week, I kept thinking about the fact that this child should have been in college instead of laying in a coffin.

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

I’ve gone from, you know, being too close to politicians, to being too close to entertainers, and people’s father that I’m not.

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.

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

Either we need to redefine what probable cause means and say that police are not subject to it, or we arrest officers right away just as we would with any other person accused of committing a crime. Either we write new laws or enforce existing ones; we cannot have it both ways.

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

I’ve been able to reach from the streets to the suites.

I was there during the first elections in South Africa. I watched them take down the apartheid flag and raise the new flag.

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

We cannot reform institutional racism or systemic policies if we are not actively engaged. It’s not enough to simply complain about injustice; the only way to prevent future injustice is to create the society we would like to see, one where we are all equal under the law.

Throughout my years championing for civil rights, analyzing politics and advocating on behalf of the voiceless, I am disturbed the most when harmless children suffer because of politics or detrimental policies.

In every era going back to Lincoln with Frederick Douglass, presidents talk to those that were leading at that time.

In 1999, I was in St. Louis with Martin Luther King III as we led protests against the state’s failure to hire minority contractors for highway construction projects. We went at dawn on a summer day with over a thousand people and performed acts of civil disobedience.

Demonstrations must be dignified and nonviolent, as the overwhelming protests in Ferguson and Staten Island have been. Do not confuse anarchists who don’t want the system to work and thugs who want to exploit a situation with the majority who from day one have operated with impeccable nonviolence and clear goals.

Countries around the world have their own immigration laws and methods of dealing with a recurring theme: desperate people searching for peace from volatile parts of the world. And nations everywhere thrive and prosper from the contributions of immigrants and the children of immigrants – including right here in the U.S.

The United States isn’t a dictatorship ruling with a brutal army and an iron fist, so our police departments must understand that they are there to serve and protect us – all of us. And when they do commit crimes, they must be arrested and prosecuted like anyone else, bottom line.

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

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.

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

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.

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

In order to establish peace, you must have fair justice for everyone.

I’m never going to be fat – never again. I’m going to make it easy on my pallbearers.

I could take all the cartoons in the tabloid newspapers, but I couldn’t take my daughter punching me in the belly and asking why I was so fat. That was my inspiration to lose the weight. And probably the last time anyone hurt my feelings.

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

Following Michael Brown’s death, I went to Ferguson and met with his parents. I stood with them as they tried to hold their heads high and deal with both their immense loss and the larger issues of police-community relations.

In Staten Island, when you have video showing the alleged chokehold used on Eric Garner, why not go to trial and have the officer(s) explain the tape, and then this jury can determine guilt or innocence? The tape should guarantee that there should be a trial.

I always beat the sun up in the morning. It’s the secret to why I’m double trouble.

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

Let me be clear: as I have said repeatedly, I do not believe that all police officers are bad, nor do I believe that most are bad. But there must be a transparent, impartial and fair system to judge those that engage in criminal or unethical acts.

All women, regardless of her economic status or racial background, have a right to vote, and no politician or regressive law should prevent her from doing so.

As a preacher who has spent significant time in churches and houses of worship all across the country, I can tell you firsthand that religious liberty and freedom are principles that can never be infringed upon.

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

I knew from the age of four that I wanted to preach. I didn’t even consider it strange that grown people were listening to this kid preaching until I was around thirteen. I have never believed in limitations.

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.