[room noise in microphone]
[string music]
We begin tonight with a man
who's been called everything
from a troublemaker
and charlatan
to a one-person
civil rights movement.
Media manipulator,
a rabble-rouser,
a tireless harbinger
of racial discord.
A blabbermouth, a loudmouth,
too flamboyant, or an agitator,
a r*cist, a race-baiter.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer]: Right?
- Oh yeah.
- All of those things?
Right.
The question that I
always hear from whites,
"Reverend Al, why do you
make everything about race?"
The white media has
painted Reverend Al Sharpton
with a broad stroke.
The Black media rejects
this negative image.
And the Black question
that's just as troubling is,
"Why are you doin' that?
Ain't nothin' gonna change."
And that's the price you pay
or that's the price
you want to pay?
That's the price you
pay for being someone
that gets involved
in a high-profile fight
all for things you believe in.
It's somewhere between
these two questions
that I've had to do a lot
of my work in activism.
Many people in the
Black community see him
as reflecting the spirit of such
men as Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey,
Dr. King, and his mentor,
Adam Clayton Powell.
[Female interviewer]:
You're a civil rights leader.
And then there's this
other side of you, you know?
You live in a fancy place--
First of all, I don't see
that as a contradiction.
We fought for access.
I think he's in the
civil rights business.
I don't think he's
a civil rights leader.
To explain to whites that
every Black born in America
is born into "it's
all about race."
[string music]
The story of the lion and the
hunter would be a lot different
if the lion could
read and write.
[President Lyndon Johnson]
My fellow Americans,
I am about to sign into law
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The reason the hunter
always comes off glorious
is he's the one
that writes the story.
Let us close the
springs of racial poison.
[Sharpton]: The lion is
always depicted as less than
what he is.
Let us lay aside
irrelevant differences
and make our nation whole.
And that has been the
problem with many of us
that have fought the
system in various ways.
[indistinct chatter]
But the system writes the story.
[Reporter]: In more
than 100 cities,
v*olence broke out.
[Reporter]: Detroit is afire.
100 square blocks
are now under siege.
Looting, m*rder, and arson
have nothing to do with civil rights.
We've legitimatized
opposition to the police
and disobedience to law.
sh**t me, g*dd*mn it!
Dr. Martin Luther King
has been sh*t to death
in Memphis, Tennessee.
[Reporter]: What effect
Martin Luther King's death
has had on you?
They're bending over
backwards to idolize him.
- [Man]: I am!
- [Crowd]: I am!
- Somebody!
- [Crowd]: Somebody!
- I am!
- I am!
- [Crowd]: I am!
- Somebody!
I stand before you
today as a candidate
for the Democratic nomination
for the presidency of the
United States of America.
[applause]
I am not the candidate
of Black America,
although I am Black and proud.
The way to end
discrimination against some
is not to begin
discrimination against others.
[Reporter]: New York City
has more racial tensions
than any other American city.
Goetz sh*t four young
men on the subway.
The sh**t on
the crime-ridden
transportation system
touched off a wide debate,
with some calling
the man a hero.
Reverend Sharpton
is a relatively new face
among New York activists,
and is asking the US
Attorney to have Goetz indicted
on charges of violating
the young mens' civil rights.
Every time we come into a case,
the first thing we have to do
is fight the wrong
narrative of the story.
The issue here is
there was no mugging.
They talk about subway punks?
Nobody proved they
were subway punks.
They would try to criminalize
and demonize the victim.
The issue here is there
was an illusion in his mind,
that he has a right to sh**t
people with that illusion.
[Reporter]: Were
there racial slurs?
No, there were no racial slurs.
[Reporter]: Did anybody
say "n*gg*r," the word?
Maybe the word
"n*gg*r" was said.
If they behaved themsleves
in this neighborhood,
maybe they could walk
the streets and be free.
Is your community
r*cist, yes or no?
[Al Sharpton]: Every
fight that I've fought
to use for a bigger issue,
'cause people don't understand
that it's not just the case.
Is the criminal justice
system working for people?
[shouts of "No!"]
Eleanor Bumpurs,
Michael Stewart.
Nobody went to jail on any case.
You are, though, a media animal.
If you're an activist,
the media is a tool
to get your message across.
We've got to turn these
stations upside down!
They like to
fight, so let's fight!
We demand a special prosecutor.
Special prosecutor.
We need a permanent
special prosecutor
to investigate racial crime.
Sometimes you have to
be loud to let people know
that is not the real story.
You people are making it r*cist.
No one looked at it that way
until you people started
to brainwash people.
[Sharpton]: We
must deal with reality.
Either we have a racial problem
or Black people have a
mass hallucination going.
All of our lives
you had to fight
to make sure that you
controlled the story.
And I want the
folks at CBS to know,
if you can't tell
the story right,
don't tell it at all!
One of these days
I'm going in the door,
and I'm gonna give 'em the news.
Al Sharpton has
some photographers
who are videotaping us as we
are being videotaped for you.
We don't know exactly
what purpose it'll be used for,
but we do wanna make note of it.
Because whoever wrote
the story is gonna write it
and slant it their way.
[string music]
[city traffic]
[funk music]
Whatever you do, Reverend
Al told you personally,
Keep it real.
Keep it real.
Keep it real!
Talk to you tomorrow.
Alrighty.
Good evening and
welcome to PoliticsNation.
As the impeachment inquiry
into President Tr*mp's
abuses of power continues,
2020 candidates will
have to thread the needle
while campaigning with voters.
You and I may
disagree on politics,
but you're one of
the smart analysts
and observers of politics.
If the president is impeached,
how will it affect the 2020
election, general election?
Well, thank you, Al,
for the kind words--
I think you've got
happy birthday cheer
overflowing in your cup, there.
I appreciate that. Um, I--
[car horn honks]
Right, after the
TV show Saturday.
What I'm trying to say is
I want to do the TV show
from 30 Rock Saturday,
go down to and speak at Howard,
and fly back and do the TV
show again from 30 Rock Saturday.
- Appreciate you, Rev.
- Thank you.
- Keep fighting.
- I'm gonna try.
- [Sharpton]: Hey.
- Happy birthday.
What's up?
Everything good?
65, Doc.
[laughing]
You're going to my--your
first Grandpa's birthday.
Happy Birthday, Grandpapa!
You lookin' in the camera?
You like cameras already, huh?
This is for the
Democratic debate?
[Woman]: Yes.
It's the only one that
looks pretty decent.
[Sharpton]: Well,
let's go with it.
[siren wailing]
[phone ringing]
[Reporter]: What's so
special about having
some of your famous
friends here tonight?
[Sharpton]: It's always good
to have these kind of people
wish you a happy birthday.
We fight a lot.
We struggle a lot.
And for them to find some
value in our work is important,
especially now in this
day of Donald Tr*mp,
where a lot of what we
have fought for is at risk.
It's time for all of
us to come together
and really show we're
gonna stand together
and protect voting
rights and civil rights.
One, two, three, four
[James Brown's Get Up plays]
Get up, get on up
Get up, get on up
Stay on the scene, get on up
Like a sex machine, get on up
[Man]: I watched you
on television, you're great.
I mean, really, really--
you're really good.
[Sharpton]: There's
one of the Central Park 5.
[overlapping voices]
[Sharpton]:
Randall, let him know
I'm mic'ed for a documentary,
so don't say nothin' stupid.
We told him.
That's right!
[Sharpton]: I raised you well.
[laughs] Birthday boy!
Thanks for coming.
You know what I was thinking?
- We're still here.
- We're still here.
Man, we're still kicking.
[applause]
[Chuck Schumer]:
Raise your glasses
to the great and
wonderful birthday
of Reverend Al Sharpton!
[cheers and applause]
I wanna say a few things.
First, we know how much he
has done to defend civil rights,
to defend the America
of its highest ideals.
Are you in any way
predicting a long, hot summer?
You're not predicting
urban strife.
You're not predicting
disorder, or anything like that?
Well, what I'm
saying is, you know,
at home, you have an oven.
You have flames
on top of the oven.
And then there's
heat in the oven.
We always discuss whether
there'll be a flame on the top,
and don't discuss that it's
already 600 degrees inside.
And he has been
relentless in doing that
for close to 50 years.
[cheers and applause]
I'm not concerned as much
about a long, hot summer,
because it's been
a long, hot winter.
How do we cool
the long oven out?
Let's not wait for the expl*si*n
and then just cut the
flames off upstairs.
Let's put the flame out inside.
Thank you, James Brown,
for being with us again.
I spent my entire
career working in media.
I've been at NBC News
for almost 35 years.
I always tell people, if you
wanna understand the media world
and how it's changed,
you follow the life of
Reverend Al Sharpton.
"Hate on Earth."
That's how the New
York Daily News described
a savage racial att*ck in
New York City last weekend.
The att*ck took place
in a predominately
white neighborhood.
The victims were three Black
men whose car had broken down.
[Richard Valeriani]: The
Howard Beach section of Queens,
where the att*ck occurred,
is an almost all-white
working class neighborhood
near Kennedy Airport.
And it is known for
its hostility to Blacks.
The three Blacks were
att*cked outside this pizzeria
after midnight Friday.
They had walked about
3 miles to the pizzeria
in search of a telephone
after their car broke down.
One of the victims,
Cedric Sandiford,
told the newspaper
Newsday the attacker houted,
"n*gg*r*s, you're in the
wrong neighborhood!"
He said he was hollering,
"God, don't k*ll us!"
Griffith will be
buried tomorrow.
Richard Valeriani,
NBC News, New York.
[camera shutters clicking]
[police radio chatter]
[Sharpton unintelligible]
We must now go to the next step,
that is vigilence.
We must be there Monday.
We must stay on Santucci.
We must not let Cuomo be silent.
I'm very upset that the
governor is not here tonight.
The governor comes from Queens.
The governor hasn't
opened his mouth yet.
We must not leave here
tonight saying the funeral is over,
they're gonna have a race
harmony parade tomorrow,
and whoop-de-doo, we
must say we're gonna be at
Santucci's door Monday.
We're going to monitor
the lawyers of the family
and Santucci, and make
sure that justice is done.
This is serious.
Racism is alive and
well in New York.
We just buried a boy. And
the only thing he did wrong
was he was born on the
wrong side of the tracks.
How do you feel about
the press conference earlier,
Attorney Maddox to make
comments on the allegations?
[Sharpton]: I heard...
There was always
these racial incidents
and racial boundaries.
We knew not to go in
certain neighborhoods.
Fights between various
segments of the city and Blacks.
[police radio chatter]
When I graduated
junior high school in '68,
I couldn't go to school
the first two months
because there had
been a teacher strike.
The Black Community School Board
wanted to fire some white
teachers in Brownsville.
And the teachers had a
strike, closed the schools down.
[Reporter]: What kind of scars
do you think this
is gonna leave?
Yes, there will be scars.
The teachers must realize that
the communities must be heard.
This kind of trauma
and back-and-forth
was the climate in New York.
[Ed Koch]: Good morning!
I'm Ed Koch running for mayor.
I need your help.
Nice to say hello.
How am I doing?
[Sharpton]: In the '80s, Ed Koch
immediately cut a
lot of the programs
that serviced our community.
We had Neighborhood Youth Corps.
We had Manpower
Training and Development.
We had Model Cities.
Many of these things
Adam Clayton Powell had
put through Congress called
the Anti-Poverty Programs.
Koch would run around, talking
about, "They're poverty pimps."
"They're misusing public funds."
If we had given
to the poor people
all the money that
we had appropriated
for the poor people,
the poor would be rich!
Instead, we allowed
poverty pimps to skim it off.
And he was a Democrat,
but he could play to that side.
And that created tension.
[chanting]
[Sharpton]: That led all the
way up to Bernhard Goetz, '84.
'85 was the mayor's race.
And '86 was Howard Beach.
And I barely went home to
change clothes since then.
[chuckles]
[Man]: We know how
Howard Beach are.
Howard Beach is no joke!
They never welcomed Black
people in this neighborhood.
See a Black person,
a colored person,
first thing is you yell
at them, you know?
This is the way it is
in this neighborhood.
We had great
leaders in New York--
Adam Powell, Malcolm X, and all.
But I wanted to expose
what they spoke about.
Black is beautiful.
Black is beautiful.
We're gonna walk side by
side with you or through you.
It's gotta be with
dignity and integrity!
We don't want any
more than you have,
and we're not gonna accept
any less than you have.
It's one thing to
have a great orator
that talks about the
wickedness, the hatred of people.
It's another thing for you
to make them put them lens
and show these guys
calling you a n*gg*r
in New York City, in the '80s.
[shouts of "n*gg*r!"]
Racism, huh?
Tell the fucker go home.
- Go home, n*gg*r*s!
- No media, go home!
This is who they are.
This is who keeps us
from going to good schools.
This is who makes us have
certain levels of
employment we couldn't get.
This is who they really are.
This is your street? f*ck you!
White street! White street! White street!
[Jesse Jackson]: Given
the racism in the country,
we are the last hired
and the first fired.
In times of w*r,
the first drafted
and the first to die.
When the nation
proper is underemployed,
we're unemployed, and then
stigmatized for being that way.
[Sharpton]: All
of the activists,
the ones that I've
studied and emulated,
came at a time when
what we wanted to say,
people did not want to hear.
So you had to be loud
because you were not
invited to address the public.
Reverend Sharpton has organized
a youth rally for tomorrow
afternoon in Howard Beach.
He says it's to show the
public that young Black men
have the right to
peacefully demonstrate
in the predominantly white
section of Howard Beach.
[Man]: I want you
to start assembling
so we can start distributing
the armbands to the marchers.
[Sharpton]: I could've
made a speech,
but I decided we'd go out there
and let them make
the speech for me.
[indistinct chatter]
No, no. Don't put
words in my mouth.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying they had
no business at that time,
four hours after
their car breaks down,
to be eating pizza over there.
Just because this is Howard
Beach, an all-white community,
the media is what
caused all of this!
[crowd shouts "Equal
rights for whites!"]
[chants "Howard Beach, have
you heard, this is not Johannesburg]"
[Man]: f*cking bullshit!
Peace? You want a piece of us?
You m*therf*ckers!
These are people who are saying
that they are opposed to someone
being k*lled by a mob,
and there's actually community
residents who would come out
to support somebody
being k*lled by a mob.
I mean, that's a kind
of collective insanity.
That's a whole
community that's nuts.
Which is what racism does.
It drives the racists crazy.
All right?
We're gonna ask all the
people to be in the green area.
Please cooperate with security.
[Sharpton:] Everybody sing
Amen, amen, amen
Remember Michael Griffith
[Sharpton]: I was baptized
by Bishop Washington
when I was three.
The next year is when
I started preaching.
And I've been
preaching ever since.
A little bit louder
All a preacher does
is take biblical stories
and use the story to therefore
get to the moral message
or ethical message
they're projecting.
I transfer that
into social justice,
whether it is Michael Griffith
being k*lled in Howard Beach
or whether it's somebody
choked to death by a cop
in Staten Island years
later, Eric Gardner.
It is the story, but the
issue is racial v*olence.
But you need the story
to make the issue live.
[shouting]
Can we hear now from Reverend--
our singing minister--Sharpton?
Reverend Al Sharpton.
Al Sharpton. Brief words.
Twenty years ago,
World w*r II ended,
with one race of people at their
Holocaust saying, "Never again."
We've heard for 40 years
people remind us of that
while we have been r*ped,
while we have been m*rder*d,
while we have been exploited,
while we have been denied.
Here we stand in New York City,
Howard Beach,
where people used to come
from the South for opportunity.
Where people used to
come from the Caribbean
feeling their problems
would be over.
Now they don't even know
if their children can
get home at night--
not because they
did something wrong,
but because of the
color of their skin.
I come today to say
to Governor Cuomo,
who's been silent
during this whole crisis,
who hasn't opened his mouth,
even though he
comes from Queens.
He's got political laryngitis.
To Mayor Koch
and the rest of them,
that we did not have our
children to be target practice
for some white mobs that
can't behave themselves!
Never again will
we come and weep!
We will organize!
We will go to the precinct!
We will go to Santucci!
We will go wherever we got to go
until you leave
our children alone!
Next day, front page of
The New York Times--
they had been
ignoring all of this stuff--
was us standing in front of
that pizzeria in Howard Beach.
[Mason] Howard
Beach, have you heard?
You are Johannesburg.
[Sharpton]: It was at that
rally I met Mason and Maddox.
And they said, we
have a legal strategy
of noncooperation.
You keep doing what you
doing, we'll do what we're doing.
[Reporter]: Attorneys Vernon
Mason and Alton Maddox,
representing the
surviving victims,
says Sandiford
and Timothy Grimes
would not testify
until Governor Cuomo
appoints a special prosecutor.
People know that in this city
that no white person
has ever been convicted
of murdering a Black person.
The argument was that the
local Queens district attorney
was not gonna indict these kids
because he did
not want to offend
the voters in Howard Beach.
[Reporter]: Some believe
that Blacks are responsible for
most of the crime in their area.
When they rob us, nobody
does anything about it.
There are white racists,
there are Black racists.
But the vast majority of people
in every one of those
groups is decent.
I think that unfortunately,
Howard Beach was inevitable.
It's an inevitable result
of a national climate
of an absence of national
leadership which says,
people's rights, people's
civil rights, must be protected.
A lot of white people
can't understand this.
New York City is the
Birmingham of the '80s.
[Sharpton]: We felt the only way
that we would get
an impartial grand jury
is if someone outside of
the politics of the county
were to investigate the case.
If you can't prosecute
the lynch mob for m*rder,
the Griffith family does not
want anything less than that.
Nothing can work, and nothing
can work as it should, at least,
without Sandiford testifying.
Why did Dr. King march
from Selma to Montgomery
when they could've
flown in in an hour?
[shouting]
[Sharpton]: It
was that daily walk
that arrested the
attention of the country.
People are marching in Alabama
for the right to vote, day one.
Day three, they're
still marching.
It was drama.
[shouting, chanting]
And I'm bringing
all of this into
what we were doing in New York.
The Post called us
loudmouths yesterday.
But I think if the Post
understands history,
They will understand that
they're putting us in
some good company.
[cheers and applause]
We're coming. The
summer is here.
And we have a new saying.
- No justice--
- [Crowd]: No peace.
- No justice--
- [Crowd]: No peace.
- No justice--
- [Crowd]: No peace.
We'd finally got to where
the legal strategy worked
as we kept agitating.
Governor Mario Cuomo
appointed a special prosecutor.
This is a special episode.
It has lifted tensions
to a special level.
It requires a special response.
And that's what we intend by
all that we have done here today.
[string music]
[Man]: So I'm gonna turn
your speaker up a little bit.
[Sharpton]: Okay.
[Man]: Okay.
[Man]: Airing commercial.
[chatter]
[Man]: Okay, we're back.
This Wednesday, MSNBC
and The Washington Post
are cohosting the
next presidential debate
in Atlanta, Georgia.
The event will feature
the leading 10
Democratic contenders,
and I will be there front and
center for all of the action.
- Hi, how are you doing?
- I'm good, how are you?
I'm all right. How y'all doing?
Good, how are you doing?
- All right, how's everybody?
- Good to see you.
Did you-- Did you
call Holly and them?
'Cause I want to go
in the media room.
- I'm following you?
- Yes, sir!
Martin! I think I
changed my mind.
I'm gonna announce
tonight I'm gonna run again.
[laughing]
That's not a bad idea.
[Woman]: We'll send
Yolanda to be your cabinet.
Cabinet?
She gonna be on
top of the ticket.
I'm gonna be--
[laughing]
- -vice president.
[indistinct chatter]
We love you in
Savannah, Georgia, man.
- Thank you.
- You don't come enough.
- Thank you, sir.
- All right, thank you.
How are you?
Marty Baron, Washington
Post. How are you?
- All right, how you been?
- Good.
You might wanna get the sh*t.
They got me sitting between
the chairman of the party
and the mayor.
[indistinct chatter]
[indistinct chatter]
[Sharpton]: Candidate for
2020 presidential nomination
Andrew Yang.
Amy Klobuchar.
[Amy Klobuchar]: Thank you!
Tom Steyer.
Senator Cory Booker.
Pete Buttigieg.
This election is going to be
one of the most important
in American history.
And certainly the most
important in our lifetime.
Voting rights is under att*ck.
And this president has put over
150 federal judges on the bench,
most of who for a lifetime.
If we don't fight and raise
the level of conversation
to where it oughta be,
then who's gonna do it?
That's why I wanted us to hear
some of the
candidates this morning.
All of them came to
our national convention.
But I wanted some
to come and greet us,
because I still say the strength
of our community, the backbone,
is and always has
been the Black church.
[Man]: Definitely!
[Sharpton]: But Reggie's
preaching this morning,
Don't let me get going.
[laughing]
[applause]
- [Woman]: Thank you, Reverend.
- Thank you.
[Reginald T Jackson]:
My brothers and sisters,
our nation is on the
verge of shipwreck.
- [Man]: All right.
- [Man]: Yes, sir.
[Jackson]: And it's imperative
that the Black church
again be the
conscience of the nation.
[audience affirming]
[Jackson]: God did not
just call us to be priestly.
He also called
us to be prophetic.
Too many of us are
content just to be priestly.
We don't wanna rock the boat!
We don't wanna
challenge the system!
Maybe they'll give
us a proclamation.
Maybe they'll invite us
to give the invocation.
Maybe they'll invite us to
lunch at the governor's house.
But God has called
us to be prophetic.
To speak truth to power.
[applause]
Brothers and sisters,
2020 is gonna demonstrate
whether we are
prophetic or pathetic.
[audience affirming]
[Jackson]: God wants
us not only to praise him!
He wants us to serve him!
That's why I like the name,
the National Action Network.
We've gotta have some action!
We gotta go to work!
We've gotta turn the
world upside down!
Black leaders are planning
massive demonstrations
in New York tomorrow
to protest what they say
is rampant racial v*olence.
The demonstrations come
as a decision is awaited
in a racial att*ck case that's
getting national attention.
Richard Schlesinger
has our report.
[Richard Schlesinger]: One
year after Michael Griffith d*ed,
a jury is still trying to decide
if a g*ng of white youths
chased him to his
death on a busy highway,
or if it was all just
a tragic accident.
After 11 days, there
is still no verdict.
My feeling is that
we're coming to an end.
[Schlesinger]: Black
activists who have watched
the trial closely plan a mass
demonstration tomorrow
to tie up traffic,
despite a judge's order hastily
issued today to stop them.
We marched in Howard Beach.
And we were called n*gg*r*s.
They threw sticks at us.
Nobody gave them
a restraining order.
No one has been restrained
through this whole crisis
but Black leadership.
[Reporter]: Mr. Maddox,
what's your reaction, sir?
[Maddox]: The police
department informed us
that we do not have the right
to freely travel on certain days.
The First Amendment to
the United States Constitution
is being trampled upon.
The nerve of them to use
legal apparatus on the victims
while they still have not
addressed the victimizers.
So he can get his best
handcuffs ready for me tomorrow.
We intend to block the bridges.
We intend to block
subway trains.
We intend to block the
Long Island Railroad.
And we intend to send
Johnson and Ben Ward
their order back, so the
next time they have diarrhea,
they can use a box of
Maalox and this order.
[laughing]
[chanting]
[Man]: I want you
to line up behind
the brothers and
sisters in the front.
Listen to me very carefully.
The entire area is
surrounded by the police.
And there are many
who are not in uniform.
There are many inside the march.
Their plan is start a
contradiction in the march.
If anyone starts any sh*t in the
march, get 'em out of the march.
We will not allow them to
deter what we are trying to do.
And most important,
be courageous!
Be fearless!
Don't let anybody down!
[cheering]
[whistle blowing]
[Crowd chants: "No
Justice, no peace!"]
[shouting]
Get out of the way!
Get out of the way!
Move, move!
[Crowd chants: "No
justice! No peace!"]
[motorcycle revs loudly]
[sirens wailing]
[rapid footsteps]
[sirens wailing]
Freedom way. Don't
you let Mayor Koch
Turn you around, turn you around
Turn you around
Don't you let nobody
turn you around
Keep on walking
[shouts of "No
justice, no peace!"]
[shouts of "No peace!"]
[Sharpton]: We're here!
This train will not
move until they move us!
They arrested 214
of us on false charges.
So if they can't ride us fair
they don't need to ride!
[shouting]
[shouts of "No
justice, no peace!"]
Brothers and sisters...
This is the most
monumental occasion.
This is a most
monumental occasion.
This is the beginning of
a civil rights movement
in the city of New York.
Michael Stewart was k*lled
in one of these tunnels.
And we are here in his memory.
We're here in the
memory of Michael Griffith,
of Yvonne Smallwood,
and all the countless others
whose lives have been
taken away from us
by r*cist oppressors.
This city will never be
the same after this day.
For 10 years, for 10 years
we marched up and
down these streets.
For 10 years, for 10
years, we demonstrated.
So now we've raised it to
the level of civil disobedience.
You talk bad, Ben Ward!
You talk bad, Koch!
You came in the midnight
hours and served us.
Now we're here to serve you.
Come on with it!
We're ready to go.
We told you we'd be here.
We're here!
We ain't taking no more!
[Crowd chants:] We're fired up!
We ain't taking no more!
We're fired up, we
ain't taking no more!
We're fired up, we
ain't taking no more!
Fired up, we ain't
taking no more!
Fired up!
[clapping]
[Male anchor]:
Echoes of a verdict.
They rode over New
York and the nation today
after a jury convicted
three young white men
and acquitted a fourth
in the death of a Black
man just a year ago.
That fatal outburst
of mob v*olence
etched the words "Howard Beach"
on the nation's consciousness.
And the anger, white and Black,
didn't end with
the jury's verdict.
[Reporter]: Mason
and other Black leaders
spent the night in jail.
They were arrested yesterday
when a group of
about 500 protestors
blocked rush hour traffic.
It was called a Day of Outrage--
outrage which continued today
despite attempts by city leaders
to put the best
face on the verdict.
Mayor Koch says he's not
gonna give any special treatment
to any of the people
arrested in the Day of Outrage.
The Day of Outrage,
as they refer to it,
took place before the verdict
in the Howard Beach case.
They were knocking
it, condemning it, before
they knew what it was.
Is that the way to get your way?
To demonstrate and
to impose yourself?
'Cause I don't think that's
what Blacks or whites want.
[Reporter]: It would
be safe to say, though,
that you're not hailing
last night's verdict
as justice in New York City.
We want to hold comment.
We have to bury Yvonne Smallwood
tomorrow night in the Bronx.
28-year-old Black
mother of four children
beaten to death by New York
City policemen in the Bronx.
And so we're gonna have
this funeral tomorrow night.
This struggle of racism and
racially motivated v*olence
in New York City
is not over with.
The Howard Beach verdict
does not end anything.
[indistinct chatter]
We have everything
in this movement.
We have nationalists.
We have revolutionaries.
We have people who want
to overthrow the government.
[shouting, cheering, applause]
And the reason why
we will continue to have
everything in this movement,
because it frightens white folks
when we have everything
in this movement.
[cheers and applause]
It lets white folks know that
we might be Malcolm today
and Martin Luther King tomorrow.
[cheering, shouting]
[applause]
Those that oppress us
had the nerve to
try and advise us
on how we ought to
try to get free from them.
[laughing]
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: We are
intelligent enough
not to let you tell us
what tactics that you
are comfortable with
to hold us in sl*very.
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: You don't have
none of us under control.
[cheers and applause]
And you will never have
us under control again.
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: That
was Howard Beach.
It felt like a victory,
but you knew that
you won a case,
not changed the system.
I'd been in the
movement since 12,
and I knew the difference
between moments
and movements that won.
So it was a good
momentary victory.
[cheers and applause]
But I knew there was
no structural change
in the criminal justice system.
If you had some
advice for young people,
what would you tell 'em?
Well, first thing I'd say,
get yourself together,
because before you can
get anything else together,
you gotta get me, I, yourself.
Hey, that's very short,
but it's very direct.
We have a young
man in the studio
who I think is an
astounding young brother
because of his youth,
he's only 19 years old,
and he's accomplished a lot.
And he's here to make a
presentation to James Brown.
And we'd like to
welcome him warmly.
His name is Al Sharpton.
How about it for Al Sharpton?
[applause]
Al is the national
director of...
- The National--
- The National Youth--
- Movement.
- Movement, Incorporated.
- Right, Al?
- That's right.
And what do we have here?
Well, we come
to break tradition.
We know that in the
recording industry
that they give a gold record
to those that achieve
a million seller.
But we view your
million seller, Payback,
as a Black record, because
it is relevant and says
many of the things that
young Blacks have tried to say
and could not musically
express in our own little way.
And we feel The Payback is
sort of the like the theme song
of young Black America in 1974.
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: James
Brown was the biggest,
most regarded, legendary
Black star in the world at that time.
And this was at one of
the lowest points in my life.
- Where were you born?
- Brooklyn, New York.
[Charlie Rose]: Yeah,
your dad left you--
When I was 10 years old.
[Rose]: And how
does that shape you?
How have you lived with that?
Well, it is certainly something
that makes you reach outside
of your home for male figures.
[Sharpton] I woke up one
morning. My father had left.
He had left with my
stepsister, and they had a child.
It impacted me more than
I would admit to myself.
When my daddy left,
my mother became
mother and father.
Sixty percent of young
African children grow up
with just their momma at home.
Hello, Rev. This is your mother.
And I think so very much
every time I hear you speak,
every time I see you perform,
every time I see
your lovely work--
I just think about how
good God has been to me
now and through the
years that I delivered you
for these, our people.
[Sharpton]: I was
looking for a father figure.
The wisdom of my
mother was she understood
that if she didn't guide me
around the right male figures,
that I was, because
of this hunger,
would seek them out, and it
might be negative male figures.
- Where did you grow up?
- [Sharpton]: In Brownsville,
which is probably the
worst part in the city.
Mike Tyson came out of there.
And you know, I'm 37 now.
Most--I can't
think of two friends
that are not either
in jail or dead.
[Sharpton] So when she
brought me to Bishop Washington,
and he brought me
to a Reverend Jones
and a Jesse Jackson,
that was because she
was smart enough to say,
"He's gonna need
that in his life."
My Father's Day is about those
that have fathered our community.
[audience affirming]
[Woman]: That's right!
Those that pay the extra price.
Those that have done
what needed to be done,
even when others
were not willing to do it.
I always gave her credit,
that this uneducated
Black woman from Alabama,
never studied child-rearing,
never studied psychology,
but she knew that.
We got too many
young people in America
who do not have two
parents to look up to,
and there's only so many hours--
And that problem is
compounded by a young mother
who is now being unemployed,
whose job's been given
to international markets,
who has no daycare help,
who has no type of assistance
from the federal government.
So he has no role model.
His mother can't
take care of him.
He's thrown in the streets
with no educational program.
He watches television that
gives him a digest of v*olence.
And then he's incarcerated
when he takes TV's advice
and picks up a g*n and
plays Have g*n - Will Travel.
Probably if he had not left
and they had stayed together,
I would have been a
much different person,
'cause I probably
would've never known
the difference of zip codes.
I would've never saw the
father figure in Adam Powell,
or Jesse Jackson,
or James Brown.
[chatter]
[Sharpton]: And I understood
what a lot of people
didn't get to understand.
I knew both sides of
the Black experience.
There's one thing about you is
I know as long as you're
involved, I'm involved.
I'm committed to
you 'cause I know
you're trying to do something.
- Thank you, sir.
I sure thank ya.
[Sharpton]: I learned
from James Brown
that if you really
find your rhythm
and find what you
believe in and what you do,
that sooner or later, the
world will cross over to you
rather than you
cross over to them.
[siren wailing]
[phone ringing]
[ mournful vocalizing ]
People have called
for charges to be laid,
but this crowd is
wondering what does it take?
Back before there were video,
they could understand that.
Now they can't.
People are calling
it a lynching.
[Anchor]: Frustration
over the lack of charges
against the officers
turned into anger overnight,
and it all comes as Minnesota
and the rest of the country
are facing the dual toll
of rising jobless claims
and cases of coronavirus.
All you need is probable
cause to make an arrest.
And there is no reason
why these four policemen
should not have
been arrested by now.
[Female anchor]: Protests
breaking out in at least
140 cities across the country.
[Reporter]: The nation
erupted into scenes of chaos,
v*olence.
There are people here
who are really, really angry
about the systemic issues
that they're talking about.
As part of Minneapolis
b*rned last night,
one of President
Tr*mp's tweets, quote,
"When the looting
starts, the sh**ting starts."
These criminal
acts are not protest.
They are not statements.
Does this v*olence help?
It doesn't help anything,
but it lets you know
that they're tired!
They're tired of being
oppressed, being misused,
being abused, being
m*rder*d at will!
What do you mean by
"Justice should be served"?
I'll leave that to the
justice system to work out.
There's this tinge
a horrific irony,
to hear calls for
tranquility and status quo
when justice has still
not been delivered.
I'm not gonna pretend
for a millisecond
to know what it's like to be
a Black person in America.
I don't.
But the only thing I do know
is that we all need to do better.
We need to love more.
We need to respect
more. Do better.
So part of what we have to do
is try to understand
the context.
[Tucker Carlson]:
Oh, the context.
And squint your eyes as you
said. "The context." Of course!
There's a context to
setting fire to McDonald's,
says Professor Gloud.
I think that this could
be a tipping point
to have this conversation.
But you cannot
have a conversation
until these officers
are arrested
and show that we are
dealing on a playing field
that is even and that
is fair to everyone.
Without that, it's
talk with no action.
We don't just need
a conversation.
We need the implementation
and execution of the law.
[Man] Solidarity and respect.
All right, thanks.
[Sharpton]: Tyler's
giving us the planes,
and Robert Smith is doing
the funerals and hotels.
So whatever rooms you
get, Robert is gonna pay for.
He told me to lay it out
and he would reimburse me.
So put the credit card
up there. We'll pay for 'em.
All right, anything
come up, let me know.
Where am I going?
[Woman]: If the question comes
from the media about looting,
we wanted to pass to
you first to set the tone.
I wanna say I'm sorry
that it's taken this long
to pass these bills.
These are bills that
should've passed long ago.
And I wanna acknowledge
the fact that it should not take
a m*rder of a Black man in
Minneapolis to pass these bills.
These bills should've passed
after Eric Garner was
m*rder*d in New York City.
[Gwen Carr]: We
want a federal law.
And any time anyone
uses a chokehold,
they are immediately,
immediately locked
up and charged.
[applause]
Don't wait five years like mine.
My case drug on for five years.
And after five years,
the DOJ dropped the ball
and said that they
weren't going forward.
You may not be
going forward, but I am.
[applause]
To those that are
doing violent things,
don't use George Floyd
and Eric Garner as props.
If you are one that is a looter,
don't act like you
are an activist.
Because a activist goes
for causes and justice,
not for designer shoes.
[applause]
[phone ringing]
Senator Schumer, it
was the outrage of the day
to call for militarization.
You can't say the
week with this president
'cause he does
at least one a day.
I'm doing the
eulogy at the funeral,
the first memorial
service on Thursday,
and then the one on Saturday,
and the one on Tuesday.
And I would hope that we
could let this family know
that we are gonna
see legislative change.
It's not enough just to keep
showing the activist part
if the legislative
part is not there.
What made the 60s significant
is with all the marching,
and the drama, and the rallies,
we got the Civil
Rights Act of '64,
the Voting Rights Act of
'65, open housing of '68.
We have not had the
legislative response
to the litany of
cases of policing
all the way from
Rodney King to now.
It's time to be able
to translate that
into legislation, not
just conversation.
[Schumer]: I'm gonna send
everybody a speech I just gave
on the floor of the Senate,
where I was really strong
against the president.
[Skype jingle]
[phone ringing]
Hello?
[Derrick Johnson]:
Hey, Rev, how you doin'?
Hey, how you feelin'?
[Johnson]: I'm good,
I'm good, I'm good.
I wanna start by saying that
the way you maneuver, man,
I'm loving it. I've
watched it, I'm learning.
Uh, I need to get some lessons
'cause you--you damn good.
Well, coming from the
president of the NAACP,
I take it as a
compliment, Derrick.
Well, America, we are
about to open the door
on our beloved city
called New York.
Mr. Sharpton was
one of several arrested
in a blocking of the
Brooklyn Bridge at rush hour,
not to mention a couple
of subway trains here.
[some applause]
For which he gets an applause
which does about
a two and a half
on the old popularity meter.
So we do 8 minutes...
and 34 seconds
during the funeral.
[Johnson]: 46 seconds.
No, well, I don't
know. You tell me.
Right before, right after?
Hold one minute,
hold one minute.
Hello?
[Jesse Jackson]: Hey Al.
Hey, Reverend,
how are you doing?
Hold one minute,
hold one minute.
Yeah, that's Jesse
on the other line.
Let's get this straight.
New York now has visible,
politically active Black people
who are not only speaking,
they are actually causing,
on some--few
occasions, purposely,
disruption of our city's life
not unlike the disruption,
or peaceful demonstrations,
that were led by
Martin Luther King, Jr.
[Johnson]: What's the
call to action out of it?
We're talking about calling
for big march and rally
on August 28, the anniversary
of the March on Washington,
as I jump off for voting
registration nationwide.
We talking about 200-300,000
people in Washington.
[Johnson]: Yeah,
no, this is your space,
this is your space.
It should surprise no one that
Mr. Maddox, Mr. Sharpton have,
at various times,
been called hot dogs.
You're out for
your own publicity,
and you're just
causing a lot of trouble,
and you're overdoing
this race thing.
After all, we're
all God's children.
Let's hold hands and
move on into the future.
Well, I think--
I think the charge of hot
dogs could be really put to rest.
If these cases did not exist,
there would be no reason
for us to come to anybody.
The media catches us in
motion. They don't start the motion.
And we've been marching long
before the media covered us.
[applause]
[Sharpton]: In
the '70s and '80s,
you had the racy kind of show.
[jeering]
The Donahues, Richard
Bey, Morton Downey.
[jeering]
Now please zip it.
We're gonna let
everyone talk tonight.
And that's what the
loudmouths are for.
Let these guys talk first.
You can't debate
first before I give it.
[Richard Bey]: Well, it's
not an answer, it's a story.
Go on and tell me.
[Sharpton]: No, it is an answer.
What's the difference
between a "f*g" and "n*gg*r"?
You wouldn't sit still
for the word "n*gg*r".
And sometimes we had to
go on the racy kind of shows.
No, I won't apologize.
In the manner in which I
use it, I do not apologize.
[cheering]
You just applauded a white
for refusing to apologize
for using the word "n*gg*r".
Do you realize what
that does for America?
[Sharpton]: The polished
shows wouldn't have us on
'cause they didn't
wanna talk about race,
and they certainly didn't
want to talk about it to people.
that were going to
tell them the truth.
This business of racism is
not new, and it's systemic.
You have to know that.
You have to know that
you're even unaware
that you're a r*cist.
They would have these guys
that will hoot and howl at you
in the studio audience.
And I am sick of you
people promoting racism
on its highest level,
and that's exactly
what you're doing.
[applause]
So it was that kind of almost
confrontational television.
You weren't here to help
build up America, most of you.
Your grandparents
were, right along with me.
And you wouldn't know
what it is to be Black.
That's why you can sit up
and say what you're saying.
You don't know what it is,
and you may never know,
because you're not Black.
[Sharpton]: We went
through everywhere else.
Richard Bey was all available.
And the question is, you
do that, or you do nothing.
We're not asking you to like us.
We're saying that we should
be protected under the law.
Whatever America is,
white folks created it.
We did not.
It's a combination of
things that created racism.
[Donahue]: Like what?
Well, okay, you
have, as you said,
the whites created the world--
or created America,
I agree with you.
[shouting]
Wait a minute, can
I make my point?
Can I make my point?
I am feeling for you.
I am very empathetic.
But then you had the buttoned
down more sophisticated network types
that talked very measured.
It seems to me that part
of what you two gentlemen
are trying to do is perhaps
to change the legal
system in the street.
We're trying to
establish the fact
that there is a
prevalent racial--
[Ted Koppel]: My question
was, whether you're trying
to change the legal
system in the streets.
[overlapping voices]
I'm trying to answer you.
[Sharpton]: But
had the same basic
exclusion of Black thought,
the distorted depiction of race.
They just did it in a
more polished way.
[Bey]: This morning's
newspapers,
"Sharpton 'The Informer'
is as an entertaining r*cist"
"playing the race
game for fun and profit,"
"the way generations of white
Southern racists played it."
There was a joke going around
that was in the
Wall Street Journal,
repeated in Esquire magazine.
What do you do if you
have S*ddam Hussein,
Muammar Qaddafi,
and Al Sharpton,
and in your hand is a
g*n with two b*ll*ts?
The answer is you
sh**t Al Sharpton twice.
[Sharpton]: So if you go back
to the '80s and '90s in New York,
and you go to the editorial
room that decided the news,
they were all white.
Why would they help
a Black movement
that they know would come to
get them for racial exclusion?
The media is really
manipulating people
to feel and think a certain way.
Nobody's controlling me.
Nobody comes
down here and says--
- [Sharpton]: Come on, Richard.
- [Mason]: You need to wake up.
You mean you're
doing this on your own?
That's right!
Okay, all right.
[Sharpton]: The way
you discredit a movement
is you discredit those that
are in front of the movement.
Former president Truman
was quoted by the AP
as saying that the march
from Selma was "silly."
The march was not silly at all.
[Sharpton]: Martin
Luther King, Jr.
National holiday in his honor.
You read books on
Martin Luther King.
Isn't it interesting they
never say he was indicted
for income tax fraud and
misappropriation of funds?
They don't want you to
remember the first thing they did
was try to make him a crook.
He had to go on trial
and get acquitted.
Adam Clayton Powell,
indicted for income tax evasion.
The gentleman's question was
that if the case
goes against me,
could it be used
against me politically?
You answer him, please?
No!
Marcus Gravey ran out
the country for a fraud.
So either all Black
leaders are crooks,
or there's the
playbook to discredit us.
Sharpton is back in the news,
arrested for grand larceny.
[Reporter]: Sharpton appeared in
Manhattan Criminal Court,
and with lawyer Alton
Maddox at his side,
heard the charges against him.
It's my induction into
the Activist Hall of Fame.
There was too much
evidence that they knew better
than what they were projecting.
They knew that I
started in Breadbasket.
They did articles on me.
Cut that part out that
that he grew up in the
King movement in the north.
We will not sit by and watch
them sh**t 14-year-old boys
in the streets any longer.
Start him mid '80s.
[Reporter]: Who is this
33-year-old preacher
without a church?
[Sharpton]: They had to redo me.
This is just a guy conning.
You know, he was in show
business with James Brown.
This is just performance.
At first, I resented it. But
then I came to understand
that the people
writing the stories
was part of the
institutionalized bias
I was fighting.
[Male anchor]: To
most white New Yorkers
and a sizeable number of
Black New Yorkers as well,
he is little more than
a pudgy exhibitionist
who can be counted on to
show up, bullhorn in hand,
at every racial incident.
So who is Al Sharpton anyway?
[Sharpton] The
objective was to stop
raising the issue of race
because they were guilty.
They had made a
intentional decision
to protect the status quo,
'cause the status quo
was protecting them.
[chanting] Stop the
r*pe! Stop the lies!
Women of color on the rise!
Stop your r*pe!
Stop your lies!
Women of color on the rise!
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm really glad to be here.
I'm here because, like
all of you, I'm pissed off
and I'm mad as hell at what's
happening to our people,
to our women,
and to our leaders.
So this is in support
of our Black sister,
Tawana Brawley.
[cheers and applause]
[applause]
[applause]
They're gonna continue
taking advantage of her
'cause she's Black.
Since the people are white,
they're dealing with the
political campaigning,
they're gonna pay
the white judge,
and the white judge is
gonna throw the case out.
But as long as we're
here to fight for her,
it will not be thrown out.
[Reporter]: Last
November, Tawana Brawley
was found dumped along
a road in Dutchess County.
She was wrapped in a
feces-covered plastic bag.
Racial slurs were
scrawled on her body.
Her family claims that she
was abducted by six white men
and sexually
abused for four days.
One of the men
purportedly claimed to be
a law enforcement officer.
It was a cop.
[Reporter]: He
was a police officer?
Showed me his badge.
[Sharpton]: My position
on the Brawley case,
which was always distorted,
was that this is a young
lady who made an accusation.
So she deserved a day in court.
And we promise this family
that we'll fight until
hell freezes over.
to get a special prosecutor
to go into the courtroom
and bring justice
to Tawana Brawley.
The case is plain. We
need a special prosecutor.
And that the attorney general is
is the appropriate
person to appoint.
Tawana, I know you have gone
through a traumatic experience.
I and my colleagues
are here to help you.
[Sharpton]: The had
the state attorney general
become the prosecutor,
who I felt was playing politics.
And at the same time,
he announced he
was going to investigate
the funds of National
Youth Movement.
So I knew that playbook.
Like they went at
Dr. King's charity.
Mr. Abrams says he has leads.
He's made no arrest.
He's acting as if
only Tawana Brawley
can give him the evidence
he needs for an arrest.
[Reporter]: The family
refuses to cooperate,
saying the authorities are
only interested in a cover-up.
I will not give in to requests
for a new prosecutor
because somebody's
unhappy with Abrams.
He's the best, as far as I'm
concerned, and that's that.
You can scream, shout,
protest, lay on the railroad tracks,
it won't make any difference.
The story and the controversy
surrounding Tawana Brawley
gets more and more curious.
There was a television
report last night that she's lying.
[Sharpton]: It's
easy to play back,
oh, Brawley was this or that,
but nobody ever stops
to say, well, first of all,
if two prominent
attorneys told the story,
mother backed it up,
and the guy prosecuting the case
is a guy that also
is after Sharpton,
why wouldn't Sharpton
believe her and not believe him?
Oh, I got it.
All young Black girls lie.
Just make it up.
Tawana Brawley's
kidnapping and r*pe case
has been mysterious
from the start.
Just like Michael
Griffith and them.
They said they was lying.
Television station
reported witnesses
had placed the Black
teenager at a party
and accompanied
reputed drug dealers
at the time she said
she was kidnapped.
There has been a
continuing journalistic r*pe
of Tawana Brawley by
the establishment media.
The Brawley case
has been marked by
one strange twist after another.
The continuing theatrics
often overshadowed
the alleged crime itself.
[Reporter]: Sharpton dropped
another questionable bombshell.
The Reverend Al Sharpton charged
that a group linked to the Irish
Republican Army is involved.
It's almost as if the
lawyers themselves
are saying the facts in this
case don't matter that much,
because the general
proposition is true,
that there's
institutionalized racism
in the criminal justice system.
Every time we seem to be
getting closer to the answers
in the Tawana Brawley case,
there are a lot more questions.
The question of
did I believe Brawley
is like asking me do I
believe Michael Griffith
was breaking in the house
that night in Howard Beach.
I didn't go do an investigation
on either one of them.
There's enough
prima facie evidence
to go to court on this.
And that-- guess what? --
is what all cases
in this country go by.
Why is it different for us?
My daughter was att*cked
by some white officials.
I have named them.
She has named them.
Why don't you get your
people there to pick them up?
[Mario Cuomo]: Tawana
Brawley I see as my daughter.
We want a chance to prove
that she will be protected.
And we will all be protected
in the protecting
of Tawana Brawley.
To do that, she has
to cooperate with us.
The Brawley case was
sandwiched between Howard Beach
and Central Park 5,
and we were
fighting all of them.
More than 30 boys in New
York City went wilding last week,
and now eight
of them are in jail,
charged with several att*cks,
including an especially
brutal one on a young woman.
[Sharpton]: No victim identified
the five boys at Central Park.
And Brawley, she
made identification.
We are not going
to let this girl
be the scapegoat
of a corrupt system!
Mason and Maddox
have obligations
as officers of the court,
as well as attorneys
to Tawana Brawley.
They have an
obligation to the system.
They are representing
their own interests.
They obviously have
a political agenda.
If he serves a subpoena
on Tawana Brawley
or any member of her family,
we are prepared to be present
to block the serving
of that subpoena.
They will not appear
in front of a grand jury.
And we're prepared
to do what is necessary,
including going to jail.
As we did with the
original subpoena,
I ask that Bob Abrams,
that he take his subpoenas,
he can do what he wants.
They will have
to arrest us first.
We had just won a
victory in Howard Beach.
Had we met at a phone
booth at 125th Street and said,
"Let's go upstate
and create a hoax."
I mean, why would we do that?
That doesn't even make sense!
The only reason we
would do it is we believed.
[indistinct chatter]
You don't want to hear
what Tawana has to say!
You wanna get this behind you
so you can go on with
r*cist business as usual.
You've got enough
behind you now.
You done got too
much behind you now.
And our cups are
filled to the brim.
Racism has run
over in this state.
We will not allow any more
of our blood in New York State
to go unresponded to.
We're tired of burying folks.
We're tired of mothers
who we can't explain
why this is happening to them.
And you sit up there
and bring a subpoena
on the mother of
a r*ped daughter.
And you expect
for us to sit around
and talk about how
we're gonna comply?
[Man]: Right on.
We cannot honor something
that is dishonorable.
That's where we stand today.
We're not entertaining
any questions.
Thank you.
[camera shutters click]
- [Sharpton]: No justice!
- [Audience]: No Peace!
- No justice!
- [Audience]: No peace!
Why is Glenda so
important to us this week?
Look at the history of
the State of New York.
No white man has
ever been convicted
of raping a Black woman
in the history of the state.
They keep talking
every night on the news,
[imitates news anchor]
"It's been six months!"
"They're still angry!"
[laughing and applause]
"Can you believe it?"
"The negroes are
still with Tawana."
They will say that we are
exasperating racial tensions.
But the people know the truth.
The people know
that we've taken more
than we should've ever taken.
We should've stopped
you with Michael Stewart.
We should've stopped
you with Eleanor Bumpurs.
We should've stopped
you with Randy Evans.
We should've stopped
you with Michael Griffith.
And we're gonna stop
you with Tawana Brawley!
"Sorry, Reverend, are
you talking v*olence?"
I'm talking what is necessary.
When it was necessary,
God got violent.
Say that God got mad one day
and drowned the whole world.
Yeah, y'all say we're crazy?
You've driven us crazy!
[applause]
400 years of abuse.
Let me tell you
something, Mario.
We are not scared of you.
You think 'cause you're
Italian and know some boys
somebody's scared of you?
We are the
descendants of Hannibal
that walked all over Italy!
[enthusiastic
cheers and applause]
You will pay from now on
for everything you
do to our people.
If we've got to take justice
in our hands, we will do that.
The Bible said there's a time
for everything under the sun.
Time to be born
and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time
to pluck up what is planted.
Time of w*r and a time of peace.
It's going to be
a day in history
if you missed the Selma
to Montgomery march,
if you missed the
March on Washington,
if you missed Marcus
Garvey organizing an army
coming down 125th Street,
don't miss Monday.
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: There's many moments
that people would come in
and have righteous anger
and want to fight back.
And we had to develop
ways that we would put our
security teams out there and
marshals to keep people cool.
I don't care if you're
left wing, right wing,
dropped both wings.
Whoever you are, you're
gonna listen to security.
There's many times I got angry
and would want to rhetorically--
I've never been violent,
but I'd get in exchanges.
And you had to learn how
to fine tune it as you went.
If you cannot listen
to security, don't go.
If you go and get out
there and start cutting up,
we're gonna take
you behind in the bus
and break both your legs.
You've gotta be able
to raise the theater level
to where you don't lose
control, you don't have v*olence.
But it is dramatic enough that
you can't be ignored, either.
[contemplative music]
[low chatter]
This is one of those moments
that transcends the
category of the ordinary.
[laughing]
You know there
are two great words
in the Greek language for time.
And one of things I like about
the Greek language is that it
has a greater capacity
for lifting up nuances
and shades of meaning.
Two great words in the
Greek language for time,
one is "kairos," and
the other is "chronos."
Now, you're probably
familiar with "chronos."
That's the word...
That's the root word
for "chronometer."
Chronos has to
do with clock time.
Right now, according to chronos,
it is 4 o'clock
in the afternoon.
[laughing]
But there's another kind of time
that is referred to in the Greek
by the word kairos,
and that's God time.
[somber music]
[Jones]: And every now and then,
God time breaks
in on clock time.
- [Man]: Say his name!
- [Crowd]: George Floyd!
[Jones]: The infinite
intersects the finite.
And you get caught up in
the transcendent experience.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Sharpton]: This young lady,
if she had not sh*t that video,
the world would've never
know what happened to George.
And I want her mother to
know we gonna look out for her.
We'll talk about
that in private.
My daughter was--she
was on her way to a bonfire,
like in the opposite direction.
And she saw what was
happening, it wasn't right.
So she pulled out her phone.
[somber music]
[camera shutters clicking]
I want us to not sit here
and act like we had
a funeral on the schedule.
[Woman]: That's
right, that's right.
[Man]: Right.
George Floyd should not be
among the deceased.
[mourners affirming]
[Sharpton]: He did not die
of common health conditions.
He d*ed of a common American
criminal justice malfunction.
[mourners affirming, clapping]
[Sharpton]: One of
the things, Martin,
that I've always
had to deal with,
as critics would say,
"All Al Sharpton
wants is publicity."
Well, that's
exactly what I want.
'Cause nobody calls
me to keep a secret.
[applause]
People call me to blow up issues
that nobody else
would deal with,
'cause I'm the blow up man,
and I don't apologize for that.
[applause]
[Sharpton]: George Floyd's story
has been the
story of Black folks,
because ever
since 401 years ago,
the reason we could never be
who we wanted and
dreamed of being
is you kept your
knee on our neck.
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: What happened
to Floyd happens every day
in this country in
education, in health services,
and in every area
of American life.
It's time for us to stand
up in George's name
and say, get your
knee off our necks!
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: We
don't want no favors!
Just get up off of us!
And we can be and
do whatever we can be.
[enthusiastic
cheers and applause]
[string music]
[Sharpton]: As a minister, I
have to look at the providence
of in the middle of
a nation lockdown,
George Floyd happens,
Breonna Taylor happens,
Ahmaud Arbery happens,
all within the
same span of time.
And all while everybody
was locked down
and had to watch the news
over and over and over again.
And it's our job to come out
this other side of this pandemic
different than when we went in.
But I'm more hopeful
today than ever.
Why? Well, let me go back.
Reverend Jackson always
taught me, stay on your text.
Go back to my
text, Ecclesiastes.
There is a time and a season.
And when I looked this time
and saw marches
where in some cases,
young whites outnumbered
the Blacks marching,
I know that it's a different
time and a different season.
When I looked and
saw people in Germany
marching for George Floyd,
it's a different time
and a different season.
When they went in front of the
parliament in London, England,
and said it's a different
time and a different season,
we need to go back to Washington
and stand up in the shadows
of Lincoln and tell them,
this is the time of
dealing with accountability
in the criminal justice system.
[applause]
[Woman]: I'd like to ask
Reverend Al Sharpton,
what is the purpose
of a family advisor
compared to a lawyer?
The lawyer is handling
the legal part of the case.
I am advising them as a minister
and as a community activist,
as we feel that has
racial overtones--
[Bey]: But it's not
your community, is it?
Well, what is my community?
[Bey]: You tell me.
Martin Luther King
marched all over the country.
Wasn't his community.
I mean, I mean, what
kind of question is that?
[Bey]: Well, is
that what you are?
You're now a
national Black leader?
Is that what you are?
[Sharpton]: No, I
am a family advisor.
I mean, which question
do you want me to answer?
I am an activist fighting
injustice where I find it.
[Bey]: You're Superman.
You go all over the world or--
[Sharpton]: I've seen other
people on your show, Richard,
like, uh... that
have been active,
and they weren't asked that.
I mean, no one asks Curtis Sliwa
why does he have
Guardian Angels everywhere
when he lives in one community?
I mean, that's ridiculous!
[Bey]: But there's
some people that think
that you'll just look at a case
that you think might
be controversial,
you'll look at a case that
might be able to get headlines.
You might be able to make
something out of a case
to make a name for yourself.
We were all involved in
the Howard Beach case.
And Reverend Sharpton--
I did not know this.
Ms. Griffith told me this
about November of '77.
This was some nearly 11 months
after her son had been k*lled.
She indicated to me that
there was one man who had,
on a daily basis, called
her, or come to see her,
or asked her if she
needed something.
And this didn't ever
get in the headlines.
This person never called
any press conferences
when he made those
contacts with that family.
That person was
Reverend Al Sharpton.
The reality of it is, is
that there's a lot of things
that Reverend Sharpton
do for a lot of victims
that people never knew about.
He counseled
the Griffith family.
He counseled other victims.
And he's doing a great job with
respect to the Brawley family.
[indistinct chatter]
[scattered chanting]
Back up, back up.
- [Man]: What do we need?
- [Crowd]: A Black army!
- [Man]: What do we need?
- [Crowd]: A Black army!
[Sharpton]: Ms. Brawley
will not attend this hearing
unless the members
of the community
are allowed to go in with her.
[Man]: Right, right.
[Sharpton]: We have the
right to a public hearing.
We will not allow Glenda
to be disenfranchised.
We have come prepared
to give our show cause.
We will do it at
a public hearing.
We will not do it
in a private setting.
So we will stand here.
If the lawyers cannot
open the courtroom,
we will be leaving and
holding this court in contempt.
You sure you don't want
to bring your client up here?
Judge, my client already
knew the outcome of this.
She had no confidence
in the judicial system here.
Black people in this
state have no confidence.
[Judge]: Is that their defense?
--to the judiciary.
[Judge]: Let me
ask you, Mr. Maddox.
And I'm pretty sure Mr. Abrams
will ask for his 30 days.
That's the maximum
allowed by law--
[Judge]: Mister--Mr. Maddox.
--right now, we can all leave.
[Judge]: Mr. Maddox,
is it your defense--
[Maddox]: I have no defense.
Is it the defense in this case
that Black people
cannot receive justice?
[Maddox]: Yes.
That's your defense
to this motion to--
[Maddox]: Yes, absolutely.
Do you wish to be heard?
[Mason]: He agrees with us.
[Maddox]: He agrees with it.
- [Judge]: Pardon me?
- [Maddox]: He agrees with it.
[Judge]: Agrees
with that statement?
- I doubt that.
- [Maddox]: I'm hoping he does.
[Judge]: Who made the statement?
Mr. Ryan, do you
agree that Black people
can't receive
justice in this state?
No, I do not.
[Judge]: The moving
papers before me
have raised no factual issue.
All that the defense has raised
have been political in nature,
and might very well be raised
in another form and not here.
Glenda Brawley's in
criminal contempt of this court
and is sentenced and
committed to the county jail
for a period of 30 days.
We will be seeking
religious asylum for her.
We challenge Bob Abrams
to come into the church
and do what he's got to do.
We're going to force you to show
the world how beastly you are.
- Hi, Bob.
- Hi, hi, hi.
The advisors of Ms. Brawley
have apparently set up
a staged circumstance today,
and I've advised the
sheriff not to bite at their bait.
A media circus has been staged.
[shouting]
No justice, no peace!
- When do we want it?
- [Crowd]: Now!
- What do you want?
- [Crowd]: Justice!
- When do you want it?
- [Crowd]: Now!
- When do you want it?
- [Crowd]: Now!
[applause]
[Man]: WLIB Radio
in New York City.
It's Monday, June 27, 1988.
Good morning and
greetings to the WLIB family.
Anyone that understands
the history of our people
understand that any
time you start shaking
the root of this system,
then you're gonna have
a discredit campaign.
And what we've seen is that.
This is the largest crowd
that we have ever
had at Bethany.
Give yourselves applause.
[applause]
[Maddox]: Every time
that there's a report,
it attracts a large
white audience.
It's like seeing a
lynching, you know?
"I'm getting ready to see
these Black men lynched.
This is something I want
to do. I have a thirst for this."
And TV is
satisfying that thirst.
Wait, wait, wait.
Everybody that is on this list
has signed in from
a news media station
that thinks that
they can att*ck us
and we cannot answer them
by name have walked out.
I'll turn this over to the army.
They will never be allowed
in a press conference
or rally of ours.
[cheers and applause]
The very strident, militant,
confrontational policy
that you've taken in terms of
dealing with the justice system,
uh, and the fact that
there has been, what?
At least four incidents
of r*cist v*olence
in this town over the
last four or five days
are somehow linked.
There are people
in this town, of color,
who are more concerned
about white feelings
than they are about
Black lives, you see?
And so they should be
happy that all we're doing
is to insist and demand justice.
[Maddox]: The one thing that
the white man has always done
and the one thing that
he will never change,
he will always give you a signal
as to who he fears and
who you should follow.
But there are some of us
who watch out for his signals.
We ignore what he says,
because the Native American
told us many years ago
that the white man speaks
with a forked tongue.
[applause]
If we did not have
radio station WLIB--
- [DJ]: That's right.
- Where would we go?
People are gonna say, "Well,
you're talking about separatism."
I don't care what
they call it, see?
White folks are crazy.
We know what the white man
did with the Native American.
Now the white man is calling
himself the native American.
White people will rewrite
history in your face.
[applause]
[Sharpton]: We're tired of this!
Enough is enough!
Payback has come!
You now have the nerve,
after all we did for you,
to put your wicked
hands on our daughter!
You will pay for Tawana Brawley!
You will pay for Tawana Brawley!
[cheers and applause]
[somber music]
[Sharpton]: Later in life, I
became more conscious.
I saw Tawana, in many ways,
like the Black mother I had
that was fighting for
her kids, or my sister.
I saw in her a Black woman
Black men wouldn't stand up for.
And I wasn't gonna be the
one to walk away from her,
no matter how hard it got.
I just wasn't gonna do it.
Okay, that's close enough.
That's close enough.
I didn't tell you
all to do that.
[cheers and applause]
- No justice!
- [Crowd]: No peace!
- No justice!
- [Crowd]: No peace!
- No justice!
- [Crowd]: No peace!
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: To this day, I
don't know all of what happened
with Brawley.
But I know she
deserved the right
that everybody else deserved.
[Tawana Brawley]: My
name is Tawana Brawley.
I'm not a liar,
and I'm not crazy.
I simply just want justice,
and then I want
to be left alone.
My family and I saw that
we couldn't get any justice.
So we decided not to cooperate.
We had no New
York Times to leak to.
[media chatter]
[Reporter]: Tawana, why
won't you answer any questions?
[Reporter]: Reverend Sharpton?
After seven months
of investigation,
the grand jury found no evidence
that a crime had been committed
against Tawana Brawley.
[Reporter]: Governor,
do you have a reaction
to the Brawley
grand jury report?
It's not a perfect system,
but it's better than any system
anywhere in the world.
Reverend Sharpton was part
of the group of three advisors
and the same kinds of
adjectives apply to him.
Abominable behavior, deplorable,
disgraceful, reprehensible.
[Reporter]: The attorney
general says that not only you,
but Mr. Mason and Mr. Maddox,
are under investigation.
What do you think is
going to come out of that?
Hardy-ha-ha.
[Reporter]: What do you
think is going to come out of it?
Nothing.
I'm saddened and angry
that we've come to this point,
where people would
use a young woman,
or use anyone in our
community for their own ambition.
They have made it less likely
that the victims of racial bias
in the criminal justice system
will be heard in the future.
They have disserved their cause.
[Sharpton]: I remember I
was on a show one night.
And a guy said to
me, "You done well.
You're doing all right now.
But I still disagree
with you on Brawley."
I said, "What do
you disagree with?
That they should've
gone to court?"
"Well, I think she lied.
And I think the jury was right."
I said, "Let me ask
you a question."
He said, "Yeah?"
I said, "Do you think
OJ k*lled his wife?"
He said, "Absolutely."
I said, "Well, the
jury said he didn't."
So I got it. You
can question juries.
I should just be a
nice boy and shut up.
[indistinct chatter]
[Bailiff]: AR2 is
back in session.
[Maddox]: In 1988,
we are being told
that every person
of African descent
cannot participate in
First Amendment rights.
And the responsibility that
you have at this moment is
to dismiss each and every
one of allegations set forth
in those complaints.
In the event that they
are not dismissed,
I have 1,000 people who are
ready to go to jail right now.
What you are talking about
is putting something down
for a week from now, when
people have already been harmed
as a result of this.
You can't undo that.
You are sanctioning.
By allowing this to go
on for one further minute,
you are sanctioning the
misconduct in this order.
[applause]
[Maddox]: Well, there are people
who are prepared
to go to jail now.
Revoke this-- no, no, no.
Your Honor, before you do that--
[Maddox]: Yeah, right now.
[Lawyer]: Your Honor.
Your Honor.
[courtroom spectators shouting]
[Sharpton]: We marched
peacefully through
these downtown streets.
We didn't break a window glass.
[Woman]: Not one.
We didn't touch a pane.
We didn't close a business.
We didn't touch a pedestrian.
We didn't snatch a pocketbook.
We didn't damage any property.
[shouts and applause]
Now they're telling us that
they can delay and adjourn
and pick the date that they
will decide on our freedom.
I'm sorry, Officer Gallagher.
But you can't choose
the day no more.
We've had all we can take.
You think you're God,
and you're not God!
[shouts and applause]
I'm telling you,
we're not leaving.
We'll spend this night
in jail or in this room.
I'm telling you that
you drew the line!
It don't mean nothing!
Take God's name off the wall!
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: Jews-- Jews
ran through the precinct
and you didn't lock up nobody.
Italians marched, you
don't lock up nobody.
And you're gonna tell
us, the children of slaves
that built your nasty streets,
that cleaned your nasty behinds,
that we can't walk the streets,
we'll turn this
town upside down!
[cheers and applause]
[string music]
[shouting]
All of them jumped on me
and started knocking me around.
[screaming, shouting]
[Woman]: Stop it! Stop it!
[somber string music]
[several voices call out:
"No justice, no peace!"]
[Sharpton]: Michael Stewart,
Barry Allen, Troy Canty,
Darrell Cabey, Daryl Dotson,
Michael Harris,
Michael Griffith,
Cedric Sandiford,
Tawana Brawley,
Yusuf Hawkins,
Kevin Richardson, Antron
McCray, Raymond Santana,
Korey Wise, Phillip Pannell,
Mary Mitchell, Rodney King,
Gavin Cato, Ralph Nimmons,
Anthony Baez, Ernest Sayon,
Jay Walker, Jr,
Caroline "Sissy" Adams.
Most of them on that list
never made high media.
But they say I only do
it for media attention.
And most of them that we
got a lot of media attention
didn't get media attention
before we came in,
and certainly we prolonged it.
I do this 'cause it's what I do.
The week of our march leading in
is the week of the
Republican convention.
So it's gonna be the major
event going into the fall.
Marches and protesting is
always about timing in history.
You got to know the right time.
Here the challenge
comes for the movement.
Say Biden wins.
Does everybody calm down, then?
And you gotta make
it above politics.
Tr*mp losing does not
assure justice is present.
It is less of an impediment,
but you still gotta put
pressure on the system.
[Reporter]: Tulsa,
Oklahoma bracing for
a possible political
storm tonight.
[Reporter]: The city
expects 100,000 people
this weekend for President
Tr*mp's campaign rally
and the city's
Juneteenth celebration.
[Reporter]: The
Reverend Al Sharpton
is expected to speak at
the Juneteenth celebration
in Tulsa tonight.
The city's mayor declared
a civil emergency...
[Sharpton]: Yeah.
You know how to
do Facetime, right?
Okay, yeah, we can do that.
[cheers and applause]
He said that he's done
more than any president
for Black people in the US.
What do you think of that?
Are you the opening act?
Are you the comedian tonight?
[Sharpton]: Mother
Crutcher, how are you doing?
Good to be seen, babe.
Thank you.
I told y'all I'd be here
when y'all need me.
[Woman]: Now, you need to
move yourself physically to the left
about an inch.
[News anchor]: So of course,
Tr*mp is throwing it back
to the bad old days
on this Juneteenth
with another George
Wallace-style thr*at
to those who don't
support his reelection.
Rev, I wanna start with you.
What do you make of
that kind of language
coming out of the president of
the United States on Juneteenth?
I think that it is offensive.
I think that it is insulting.
[phone ringing]
Yeah, Mike, Chris did a
walkthrough with the police.
Yeah, I'm sorry--
I walked through
with two of the police officers.
And it's a very open field.
There's not a lot of cover--
well you can see everybody.
So it's kind of open.
I don't believe--
It's a security risk.
[Michael Hardy]: So is
the concern a sh**t?
I mean, it's--it's--
[Hardy]: Do you have a
recommendation, Chris?
Honestly... Rev shouldn't...
really shouldn't do this.
I don't believe it's
feasible with the climate,
with the reports
that we're getting
even from the officers of
the amount of people
that are out there.
I mean, I think, Hardy,
the best thing you can do
is let them secure
as much as they can.
I'm going to do it.
I don't, you know...
We get threats all the time.
[Hardy]: Right.
I'm not going to
not do the rally.
[Woman]: The
Reverend Al Sharpton,
President of the
National Action Network!
Give it up Tulsa!
[cheers and applause]
I love you. I love you so much.
I love you.
No justice!
[Crowd]: No peace!
No justice!
[Crowd]: No peace!
No justice!
[Crowd]: No peace!
[chants of "Yusuf!"]
[Cameraman]: Coming
in, coming in, coming in.
Sorry, baby.
[Reporter]: The k*lling of
16-year-old Yusuf Hawkins
has had a chilling effect on
race relations in New York.
Hawkins was sh*t
dead after a confrontation
with a g*ng of whites in an
Italian-American neighborhood.
The peace seems to be getting
harder and harder to keep.
[shouting]
[Man]: Hey, we want
Al Sharpton out here!
White power!
k*ll 'em mother
fucker, we k*ll 'em!
This is all the media's fault!
The media should not
publicize this kind of crap
because they're all wanting
wars to start in another place.
These things
should be kept quiet.
Al Sharpton, go home!
[Cameraman]: New tape, new tape.
Tape man.
[tape static]
[Man]: Where's Al Sharpton?
[Man]: Bullshit and lies!
[shouting]
[Woman]: Get an ambulance!
[Sharpton]: Until you
face what could be the end,
you guess what you would do
if you looked death in the face.
But it's different when you
think you're looking death
in the face, and
death is saying to you,
"Now what you gonna do?"
[Female anchor]: The
controversial activist
Al Sharpton is in
the hospital tonight
with a s*ab wound to the chest.
Police say a white man
from the Bensonhurst area
att*cked Sharpton as he
prepared to lead a march
in that community.
They rushed him here
to Coney Island Hospital,
where doctors treated him
for a wound in the upper chest,
just below the collarbone.
The w*apon? A
5-inch kitchen Kn*fe.
[Sharpton]: It changed
me in two ways.
One way, it made me know
that I really was not gonna
stop no matter what they did.
[Reporter]: How do
you feel about the att*ck
and the guy who came out of
the crowd and att*cked you?
Well, I think that he
is the personification
of a lot of hate,
and I don't have ill
feelings toward him.
I would much rather
concentrate on the justice system.
[Sharpton]: Second thing,
if I am going to die for this,
I want to change to society.
That means you've
got to change laws.
[Reporter]: Mr. Mason
and Mr. Maddox,
there seems to be
some divisiveness.
Are you calling for calm?
Are you supporting
the march today?
Oh, I'm absolutely
calling for calm.
Maddox was always more in
the nationalist, Malcolm tradition.
[applause]
[Sharpton]: They
made a decision,
them three or four days
I was in the hospital,
that they were not
gonna let whites
attend the rallies
anymore like sl*ve Theater.
That's when I left.
Maddox understood I
was going another way.
We just saw our roles and
our traditions differently.
Vernon Mason went
to Harlem went me
and helped me start
National Action Network,
an organization
on the principles
of Martin Luther King.
We must not reduce ourselves
to, "If you don't do it my way",
"you ain't right."
"If you ain't out here
with me, you ain't right."
Because all of us
don't need to be outside.
Somebody better be
inside helping us outside,
or we gonna be outside forever.
[Sharpton]: Mrs.
Coretta Scott King,
Martin Luther King's widow,
was the one that challenged me.
She says, "Al, let me ask you,
why did you say
'so-and-so' in this occasion?"
I will never bow down to one
of these chicken sh*t negroes
that y'all have elected
to one of these offices,
that have done nothing
but kiss crackers'
behinds all their life!
[applause]
[Sharpton]: And I'm trying
to explain and justify--
I mean, it was almost
like I'm in a court
being a defense attorney.
And I'm half shocked
that Mrs. Coretta Scott King
knows about all this
stuff I did and said.
And then she says,
"Al, you realize that
words have power?"
So as we rebuild the family,
know that what you
put in Black children
is what will grow in them.
[Sharpton]: "So you
oughta be careful with that."
She says, "You can
either go for the crown"
"that we talk about
in Christianity,
"or you can go for the crowd.
You gotta choose."
[Sharpton]: This is your life.
It's like a blank
piece of paper.
You can write on
it what you want,
or the world will
write on it for you.
You should write for yourself
the things that are positive
and powerful for you.
You don't give people
room to misinterpret,
because the cause is the
bigger than the applause you get.
The Reverend Al Sharpton says
he'll run for the
US Senate seat.
We must be concerned
about the agenda
that empowers our community.
[Sharpton]: And I had to
learn to discipline myself.
[Reporter]: Amadou Diallo
was sh*t by four police officers
who fired 41 sh*ts at him.
[shouts of "Amadou!"]
[Sharpton]: This is not the end.
This is the beginning.
We intend to
nationalize this fight.
I became more defined as
in the lane that I was born in.
It was not I had changed.
I had returned, and
that's who I was.
We are angry, but we are bright
enough and intelligent enough
to channel our
anger to get results!
[Reporter]: The Reverend
Al Sharpton and others today
found justice not outside
of the system, but through it.
[Woman]: Please welcome
Democratic
presidential candidate
Reverend Al Sharpton!
[applause]
[Sharpton]: There's
a difference between
making news and making history.
I think you gotta go
beyond your comfort zone.
A civil rights activist who now
hosts his own program on MSNBC--
Welcome to PoliticsNation.
I'm Al Sharpton.
In the '50s, it was Emmitt Till.
Now it is Trayvon Martin.
This boy should be alive today!
The work we've done with
the Taskforce for
21st Century Policing,
that at times you've
participated in,
terrific recommendations.
Appreciate you, sir. Thank you.
And Mrs. King was
a large part of that.
[Reporter]: Developing now,
crowds are gathering
in the nation's capital
for a rally called The
Commitment March--
Get Your Knee Off Our Necks.
It also marks the
57th anniversary
of the March on Washington,
one of the most important
civil rights demonstrations
in our nation's history.
Joining us now, the organizer
of today's march on Washington,
my dear friend, the
Reverend Al Sharpton.
He is the President of the
National Action Network.
He also hosts
MSNBC's PoliticsNation.
I understand the anger,
but your anger should
be directed in a way
that you're going to deal
with what you're angry about.
You cannot let your anger
make you like what you're fighting.
Nobody's more angry than me.
I've been fighting these
issues for decades.
But am I angry enough
to channel my anger
toward what I'm angry about?
Or, am I gonna start being
like what I'm angry about,
reckless and violent?
[indistinct chatter]
97.6--you are good to go!
- Thank you.
- Of course.
- How are you doin', boss?
- Good, how are you?
[Yamiche Alcindor]:
Yesterday was crazy.
I was at that gathering
at the White House,
hoping that none of
those germs will k*ll us all.
You see how careful
we're trying to be.
It's crazy.
[Alcindor]: Nobody was
tested. It was just crazy.
We tested everybody, and
those that we had to let in
we tested in
brackets in the back.
Yeah.
[Sharpton]: Everybody's here?
The busses are in, but
they have to walk over
from Union Station.
Good to see you. You all right?
- They treating you all right?
- Yeah.
If they don't take care
of you, you let me know.
[chanting "No
justice--no peace!"]
No r*cist police.
[Man]: Show me what
democracy looks like!
[Group]: This is what
democracy looks like!
[Sharpton]: You slowly helped
some families to understand
that it's bigger than them,
and that their loved one
can be the Emmett Till,
can be the symbol,
then we can change
it for other families.
We can't bring 'em
back. I wish we could.
[Reporter]: Reverend Sharpton,
What is your call to action?
We want to push the George
Floyd Policing and Justice bill
and the John Lewis voting bill.
They ought to go to
their senators, email them,
and say those bills must pass.
But we can make
a historic statement
if we just work together.
Anything you need, let us
know. All right? Anything.
I'm gonna give you my
number if you need anything.
You have to have somebody
that's been there with them,
they know what to talk about,
that's not coming in
with platitudes and all,
but they're coming
with real-life stuff.
And I've been there.
[cheers and applause]
[Sharpton]: When I go up,
have Mr. Blake, Philonise Floyd,
Breonna's mother, and
Arbery's father standing,
ready to come down when I call.
I always questioned
when I was younger,
why did God let this happen?
To me, my father, my sister.
[cheers and applause]
No justice!
[Crowd]: No peace!
No justice!
[Crowd]: No peace!
No justice!
[Crowd]: No peace!
[Sharpton]: And I
thought about it later in life,
that if I hadn't
went through that,
I probably couldn't have
ministered to those families,
'cause I would've never
known that experience.
2020, we must deal
with police brutality.
2020, we must deal with those
that want to rob
our right to vote.
[applause]
[Sharpton]: So I know what
a lot of those families I end up
later in life had to go
through, 'cause I was that kid.
And I didn't come to
shame 'em or use 'em.
I came to help 'em
and help the cause.
I bring you the brother
of George Floyd,
Philonise Floyd.
But you can't ignore their
needs to help the cause.
And I never talk about
it, won't talk about it now.
That's between
me and the families.
It's part of that vow I made.
[Philonise]: I wish George
were here to see this right now.
That's who I'm marching for.
I'm marching for
George, for Breonna,
for Ahmaud, for Jacob,
for Michael Brown, Trayvon,
and anybody else
who lost their lives.
All to evil...
[indistinct chatter]
Sorry man.
[shouts of "George Floyd!"]
[shouts of "Breonna Taylor!"]
[shouts of "Jacob Blake!"]
[shouts of "George Floyd!"]
[Man]: Atatiana Jefferson!
Jemel Roberson!
Ahmaud Arbery!
Sylville Smith!
DeAndre Barber!
Terence Crutcher!
Trayvon Martin!
[Woman]: You need
some water, Rev?
[indistinct chatter]
[Man]: Testing,
one, two, three, four.
[distant cheers]
- [Man]: Say his name!
- [Group]: George Floyd!
- [Man]: Say his name!
- [Group]: George Floyd!
[Sharpton]: This
is the first time
in the history of this state
that a white police officer has
been convicted of a m*rder.
This is the first time
in a long ray of fights
that we've seen three
counts guilty in all three.
We don't find pleasure in this.
The w*r and the
fight is not over.
Just two days from now,
we're going to have to
deal with the funeral of
Daunte Wright in this same area.
Before we do anything,
we first wanna pray.
We believe in a God that can
even get through the cracks
of the jury room and bring
conscious and bring truth.
And that jury, we
wanna thank them
for letting God give
them the strength.
Wherever they are tonight,
we want them to know
we broke down in tears
when we heard the verdict.
We had to hold each
other and hug and tears,
because too many
nights we've cried,
many of us for decades,
spent nights in jail.
But today we can
wipe our tears away
and fight on for another day.
There's sunlight.
We're gonna keep going 'til
we bring it for the Eric Gardners
and the Breonna Taylors,
whose boyfriend is here tonight.
[Man]: Kenny Walker.
Kenny Walker.
[applause]
Sean Bell, so many
that did not get this night,
this night is for them.
Let us pray.
What about the meeting?
Are you satisfied with
what went on in there?
We asked the police
commissioner point blank
to suspend--
emphatically suspend
the officer in question.
And we got a lot of
runaround about that.
[Sharpton]: Dear
God, we thank you
for giving us the
strength to stand together.
Sometimes we would
question each other.
Sometimes we say this is
just gonna be a waste of time.
A young man was sh*t and his
m*rder*r has not been punished.
And, I mean, you can talk
about long range, short range,
any kind of
investigations you want.
[Sharpton]: And
Lord, let George know
that his name is
going down in history.
And we give you the praise.
Thank you, and God,
we give you the glory.
These blessings we
ask in your name, amen.
[All]: Amen!
Amen!
[applause]
[Sharpton]: You
have white policemen
policing the community
that have the same mentality
that this man has.
So, I mean, you're
talking about the grand jury
and an investigation, a
DA, means nothing to us.
The only thing that
means something to us
is direct action--
pull the white policeman out
and deal with that situation.
Reverend Alfred Sharpton,
chairman of the National
Youth Movement.
[Terrence Floyd]: Reverend
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton,
they lived to see this.
Their fight wasn't in vain.
It just didn't happen
when they did it.
But it happened now.
Let's make sure, Reverend
Al, that this moment
will be documented for
our children yet unborn
as they continue on
the journey to justice.
[Sharpton]: I never
thought I would see
a policeman convicted
on all three charges.
Movements need victories.
The George Floyd
verdict gave us that victory.
[Female reporter]:
Congratulations. Thank you so much.
[Sharpton]: When I
started at 18 years old
as a youth director for
Shirley Chisolm
for President in '72,
we never dreamed of a Black
woman being vice president.
When we would boycott and picket
supermarkets and
stores in my teen years
in Operation Breadbasket,
it was not even in
the realm of fantasy
that we'd see Black CEOs
of Fortune 500 companies.
Don't tell me
things won't change.
I kept telling family after
family that we keep going,
at some point,
we'll break through.
I sat on the stage when a Black
man named Barack Hussein Obama
put his hand on Abraham Lincoln
and Martin Luther King's bible
and was sworn in president
of the United States.
I've seen too much change
to feel that nothing will change.
I've seen a lot of
things go backwards,
but I keep the change in my
head because the change I've seen
makes me know that if we keep
going, we can break through.
I want to use for a subject,
"No Justice, No Peace."
[applause]
I want 50, 100 years from
now for somebody to say,
there was a time police
used to get way with brutality.
There was a time that they
gave a Voting Rights Act,
and it lasted 50 years,
and the Supreme Court
took the gut out of it.
And oh, there was a
little fat guy from Brooklyn
who dropped out of college.
When he got older,
he lost the weight.
He was on the front
line to help in all of that.
Nobody will care what
kind of apartment I have.
Nobody will care how
much money I made.
They'll care that I
was one of them.
Did those two or
three things in history.
That's all. That's all.
And when I see my mentors
in heaven, I can tell them...
I got some stuff done.
[Reporter]: I wonder if
this moment feels different
on a legislative
and policy front.
[Sharpton]: I do.
We're dealing with a police
case in Columbus, Ohio.
Dealing with a sh**ting
in North Carolina.
We're dealing with
the k*lling here, Daunte.
If now is not the time,
I don't know when it
ever will be the time.
[Reporter]: Reverend Al
Sharpton, thank you so much,
on a day like today, for
making some time to talk to us.
[string music]
[music]
There's a truth we
cannot stop facing
It is what it is
It is what it is
There's a hope we
will not stop chasing
Now til the end
Now til the end
Couldn't breathe
Searched the whole
world to find some relief
Helped me see
Power
Running through me
[Choir]: Power!
Help me use it
All of the people,
all of the people
got power
Power
Power, can't deny it
[Choir]: Power!
No use fighting
All of the people, all
of the people got power
[Choir]: Power!
[Na Na Na]
[Na Na Na]
[Na Na Na]
Having faith has never been easy
In this world
In this world
It can take in a day more
than years can leave you
It already hurts,
and we make it worse
Know you're tired
And distraction's
a sign of the times
Don't stand by
Power
Running through me
[Choir]: Power!
Help me use it
All of the people,
all of the people
got power
Power
Power, can't deny it
[Choir]: Power!
No use fighting
All of the people, all
of the people got power
[Choir]: Power!
Couldn't breathe
Ran the whole world
to find some relief
Helped me see
Know you're tired
And distraction's
a sign of the times
Don't stand by
[Na Na Na]
[Na Na Na]
[Na Na Na]
[Choir Sings]
[Choir]: Power!
Running through me
[Choir]: Power!
Help me use it
All of the people, all
of the people got power
[Choir]: Power!
Power
Can't deny it
[Choir]: Power!
No use fighting
All of the people, all
of the people got power
[Choir]: Power!
Power
How will you use it?
[Choir]: Power!
Chaos or beauty?
All of the people got power
Power
Loudmouth (2022)
Moderator: Maskath3