Sharpton for President!

Sharpton is under no illusion of the enormous task ahead, but like other Black activists that have gone before him such as Ron Brown and Rev Jesse Jackson he knows that his presence in the presidential race will at the very least raise the profile of the Black vote and the issues of Black people. I met up with Rev Sharpton almost a year ago in Atlanta as part of an international panel at the ‘State of the Black world conference’. Listening to Sharpton one is acutely aware that there is perhaps no one in America that understands the issues of Black Americans better than him. During his Atlanta conference speech he spoke about his outrage of innocent people being targeted during the September 11 terrorist attack, but he was also able to articulate the negative impact that would follow for many African and particularly Arab Americans. ‘The blank cheque legislation that Congress affords President Bush to fight terrorism will be used to ‘profile’ Arabs and Muslims much the way they have targeted many innocent Black people,’ declared Sharpton. On the issue of disenfranchised Black votes in Florida that controversially brought President Bush to power, Sharpton was scathing. ‘We will not get over it’ he told the 3000 strong audience, at the suggestion that Black America should ‘move on’ from the disappointment of Black votes not being counted. ‘It is Black people of America, not white, that have had heads cracked open, fighting for the right to vote. No, we will not get over it’. After all the speeches I managed to have a few minutes with Rev Sharpton. He told me he was impressed with what Black Britons were achieving in the UK, despite the obstacles we face. ‘Our international dialogue has mostly been with the African continent, we must branch out more to our European brothers and sisters, particularly you guys in the UK’, he explained. I didn’t need a second opportunity to invite him there and then to offer his solidarity to the political empowerment of Black Britons. So on the 22nd October, 2002 ‘the man with a grand plan’ Presidential candidate Rev Al Sharpton takes a break from his campaigning to come to London to give the first Choice FM/OBV lecture - ‘Power is never given’. In his many years of fighting for justice for Black people around the world Sharpton has acutely understood the dynamics of power, be it locally, nationally or personally. Sharpton began preaching when he was four and was ordained and licensed to preach by the age of nine. At 17 he founded the National Youth Movement which he led for 17 years registering people to vote and giving them job opportunities. In 1991 he formed the National Action Network to fight for progressive, people based social policies by providing voter education campaigns and by confronting corporate racism. He has continued the challenge against police brutality; it was no surprise therefore, that Sharpton would orchestrate one of New York’s biggest protest after unarmed, Amadou Diallo was shot 42 times in 1999. Never afraid to take a difficult stand Sharpton was jailed for peacefully protesting against American ‘test’ bombing in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Because of his ‘notoriety’ the Judge imposed a ninety-day jail sentence - double that of the other co-defendants. But this seemingly unjust incarceration has only added to the respect that Black America shows towards Sharpton. Quoting Dr Martin Luther King in his ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’, for peace protest Sharpton said, ‘an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law’. When Rev Al Sharpton comes to speak here later this month, he comes not only with an impressive history of activism. But even more than that he comes with a humility that seeks to learn from the Black British experience, and with the mantra that ‘your struggle is mine, and mine is yours’. For more information about Rev Sharpton’s visit, and to reserve a seat for his lecture, to be held at the Institute of Education, 22nd October 2002 at 6pm - contact Rosalind on 0208 880 6060.