Actors - Al Sharpton

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	Actors - Al Sharpton

The Reverend Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is a Pentecostal minister, a political activist, civil rights activist and film actor. Sharpton sought the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States in 2004.

Early years

Al Sharpton was born in 1954 to a middle class family in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a boxer and landlord. Until the age of ten, he lived a comfortable life in Queens. He preached his first sermon at the age of four, and soon became famous in Brooklyn as the "wonderboy preacher," even touring with gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Licensed and ordained a Minister at age 10 by Bishop F.D. Washington in 1964.

In 1963, his parents separated. Sharpton recalls in a 2002 interview "My daddy walked out on us, and he married my half-sister, Tina. Tina was my mother's daughter from a previous marriage." His mother took a job as a maid, earning very little, and qualified for welfare; the family moved from their middle class home in Queens to the projects in Brownsville.

Political Activism

Sharpton's first attempts at organizing people were in high school, where he protested against poor cafeteria food and the dress code. In 1969, he was appointed by Jesse Jackson as youth director of Operation Breadbasket, a group that focused on the promotion of new and better jobs for black Americans.

In the 1970s, after two years at Brooklyn College, Sharpton became a tour manager for James Brown, where he met his future wife, Kathy Jordan, a backup singer. Sharpton and Jordan married in 1983.

In 1971, Sharpton founded the National Youth Movement to fight drugs and raise money for impoverished youth.

In 1991, Sharpton founded the National Action Network to increase voter education, services aiding the poor, supporting economically small community businesses, confronting racism and violation of civil and human rights.

He has also spoken out against cruelty to animals in a video recorded for People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Sharpton recently signed a public statement comparing George W. Bush to Hitler and calling for his "regime" to be driven from power.

To his supporters Sharpton is a loyal defender of the underrepresented poor and disenfranchised who has been supporting his community for 30 years. Critics of Sharpton accuse him of being a profiteering racial agitator, as evidenced by the Tawana Brawley hoax, inserting himself into instances of racial tension in order to increase his own popularity, often making situations more tense. Many see him as anti-Semitic.

Assassination Attempt

On January 12, 1991, Michael Riccardi stabbed Sharpton with a five-inch knife into his chest and tried to flee as Sharpton was preparing to lead the non-violent protest in a Brooklyn schoolyard. Sharpton suffered a punctured lung and spent five days at Coney Island Hospital. He has a 1-inch scar on his chest and says he suffered lung damage that still disrupts his breathing.

On December 12, 2003, the City of New York agreed to pay Sharpton $200,000 in damages.

Candidacies

Sharpton has run unsuccessfully for the United States Senate seat from New York in 1988, 1992, and 1994. In 1997 he ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York City. He has never held elected office.

On January 5, 2003 Sharpton announced his candidacy for the 2004 presidential election as a member of the Democratic Party. Precisely one year later, days before the Iowa caucus, reports of connection between Sharpton's campaign management and entrenched Republican Party organizers surfaced.

Sharpton has been critical of the news media, charging it with ignoring his campaign due to deep-seated racial prejudice.

On March 15, 2004, Sharpton announced his endorsement of leading Democratic candidate John Kerry. However, Sharpton did not withdraw from the race, continuing instead to campaign and striving to win delegates for the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

On December 15, 2005 Sharpton agreed to repay $100,000 in public funds he received from the federal government for his 2004 presidential campaign. The repayment was required because Sharpton had exceeded federal limits on personal expenditures for his campaign. At that time his most recent Federal Election Commission filings (from January 1, 2005) stated that Sharpton's campaign still had debts of $479,050 and owed Sharpton himself $145,146 for an item listed as "Fundraising Letter Preparation -- Kinko's."

Controversy

Tawana Brawley

In the Tawana Brawley case, a 15-year-old black girl was found smeared with feces, lying in a garbage bag, her clothing torn and burned and with various slurs and epithets written on her body in charcoal. Brawley claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by six white men, some of them police officers, on November 28, 1987 in the town of Wappingers Falls, New York.

The FBI was called in, and Brawley was questioned about what had happened. She claimed she had been raped by unidentified white men. When a rape exam came back inconclusive, she changed her story, saying that she hadn't been raped, but had been sexually abused. Further examinations revealed that Brawley had received no real injuries, nor did she show signs of exposure. Testimony from her schoolmates also indicated that she had been at a local party during the time of her supposed abduction.

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