Best 105 quotes of Al Sharpton on MyQuotes

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.

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

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.

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.

Bill Clinton strikes me as the kind of guy who goes wherever the polls lead him, rather than leading the polls.

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.

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

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

Dr. King used Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and to passive resistance.

During my 2004 presidential campaign, I was fond of saying that it was high time for the Christian right to meet the right Christians.

Evangelicals catapulted George W. Bush back to the White House.

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.

Getting Democrats organized is like herding cats.

I am in hell already. I am in Israel.

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.

I cannot imagine where we would have been without BET. Many like me who operate in black America can only get our balanced story told nationally on BET talk shows.

I can't see how an unarmed man rejecting a drug deal ended up dead.

I disagree with Muhammad. I'm against hate, anti-Semitism and homophobia. This is not a village of hate. It's a village of hope. Don't let midgets give us a bad name. There are still giants in Harlem, giants who will stand up for our children.

I do believe that the party has a bunch of elephants running around in donkey clothes.

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.

If a cop sees a person running out of a store with a gun he's seeing a crime. He's not seeing a person standing.

If Charlton Heston can have a constitutional right carry a rifle, why can't grandma have a constitutional right to health care?

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.

If I use the media, even with tricks, to publicize a black youth being shot in the back in Teaneck, New Jersey... then I should be praised for it, and it's more of a comment on them than me that it would take tricks to make them cover the loss of life.

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

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

If you play the theatrics too much, you get in the way of your own cause.

I grew up in the 1950s and '60s, when it was almost a holiday when a black act would go on Ed Sullivan.

I haven't done the things I've done to be in a sitcom.

I have the right to express myself. Once we get through expressing, do we really move forward in society.

I just released an op-ed in the "Washington Post" that talks about providing an I.D. so that everyone can have an I.D., primarily, the social security card, a picture would be put on that card, and a president can certainly by executive order make this happen so that people will not need a special I.D. They`ll have one to vote.

I'm a patriot in the truest sense of the word.

I`m deeply concerned about Jeff Sessions, who has clearly expressed opposition to the use of consent decrees and has advanced a lot of this states` rights rhetoric.

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'm projected as an ambulance chaser, but I'm more the ambulance. People call me because they know I will come.... I have never fought a case where they didn't ask me to come. People have this picture like I'm sitting up in bed at night with a walkie-talkie. "You hear anything? Oh, let's run! It's Virginia today!"... Every victim calls us.... "Who put Sharpton in charge?" The victim!

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`m very cautious and very concerned about what I have initially seen, but I also believe we`ve got to organize like we have never organized before.We talk about it, but realistically, we`ve got to organize at the grassroots level.

I need to hear something about how he`s going to bring people together in the spirit, hopefully, of Martin Luther King Jr., and if that`s not heard, then we`ve got to constantly challenge him.

I remember the president-elect [Donald Trump] saying that I`m going to do something to dramatically, positively change communities, particularly in urban areas, and I think we`ve got to hold his feet to the fire to all those issues as well as all the issues that you addressed, you and many others addressed yesterday as it relates to criminal justice, as it relates to voting oppression.

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.

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

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

I think first of all, the United States has got to adopt a policy of befriending and creating allies around the world.

I think that any time you look at the fact that boycotts have historically led to change, whatever temporary inconvenience there may be, it in the long run leads toward, in my opinion, a better change for everybody.

I think that what we want to do as we continue to move forward is look at the various points that have been made.We`re looking forward to the appointment of a monitor so that we can continue to do some of the things that we`ve been doing.

I think that whoever is the attorney general, you don't want them to be as a yes person for any particular constituency.

I think you don't support people based on one or two cases of situations. You deal with their balance over the long run.

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

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.

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.