Al Sharpton Quotes

White folks was in the caves while we [blacks] was building empires ... We built pyramids before Donald Trump ever knew what architecture was ... we taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.

If Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.

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

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

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.

But resist we much. We must and we will much about that be committed.

While the rest of the country waves the flag of Americana, we understand we are not part of that. We don't owe America anything - America owes us.

I am in hell already. I am in Israel.

I've never seen a prosecutor hold a press conference to discredit the victim.

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

Getting Democrats organized is like herding cats.

Don't talk to us like we ignint!

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

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

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

America has to make America become a better place for all Americans, and that`s all of us participating.

I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table. But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.

What’s wrong with denouncing white interlopers?

I've seen too much in life to give up.

We need an amendment that gives us the right to vote protected by the federal government and the Constitution.

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 promise of America is one immigration policy for all who seek to enter our shores, whether they come from Mexico, Haiti or Canada, there must be one set of rules for everybody. We cannot welcome those to come and then try and act as though any culture will not be respected or treated inferior. We cannot look at the Latino community and preach 'one language.' No one gave them an English test before they sent them to Iraq to fight for America.

I don't think Dr. King helped racial harmony, I think he helped racial justice. What I profess to do is help the oppressed and if I cause a load of discomfort in the white community and the black community, that in my opinion means I'm being effective, because I'm not trying to make them comfortable. The job of an activist is to make people tense and cause social change.

I believed there was enough evidence to go to trial. Grand jury said there wasn't. Okay, fine. Do I have a right to disagree with the grand jury? Many Americans believe O.J. Simpson was guilty. A jury said he wasn't. So I have as much right to question a jury as they do. Does it make somebody a racist? No! They just disagreed with the jury. So did I.

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.