Al Sharpton Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

I feel that it is our moral obligation to stand and to be courageous with these families, and particularly Cindy, that have become the conscience of this nation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So (if) some cracker come and tell you 'Well, my mother and father blood go back to the Mayflower,' you better hold your pocket. That ain't nothing to be proud of. That means their forefathers was crooks.

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

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

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

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

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

But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.

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

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

It was better walk with dignity than ride in shame. A lot of people in Cincinnati are saying, "Rather than have the continual problems of police brutality and economic disparity, I'm willing to make some sacrifices." And I think that they ought to be respected for doing that.

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

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

Don't talk to us like we ignint!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It does not appear, nor is there any reason to believe that [ Jeff Sessions] will put policing reform front and center in the way that this justice department has, and that will mean that we cast aside eight years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears that have gone into bringing cities and mayors and communities to the table to address what truly is a national crisis.

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

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

It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule. That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres. We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.

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

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