Al Sharpton
My message to everyone: the next time you hear about migrant children near the border, just picture them as your own. Then think what you would want our government to do.Collection: Government
We cannot reform institutional racism or systemic policies if we are not actively engaged. It's not enough to simply complain about injustice; the only way to prevent future injustice is to create the society we would like to see, one where we are all equal under the law.Collection: Future
There's no reason why children in inner cities or rural areas do not receive the same quality education or opportunities as those in suburbs or wealthy neighborhoods. If we truly believe in giving all citizens a chance to pursue happiness and pursue their goals, then we cannot continue to marginalize entire groups of people.Collection: Education
In order to establish peace, you must have fair justice for everyone.Collection: Peace
I always beat the sun up in the morning. It's the secret to why I'm double trouble.Collection: Morning
The resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder is met with both pride and disappointment by the Civil Rights community. We are proud that he has been the best Attorney General on Civil Rights in U.S. history and disappointed because he leaves at a critical time when we need his continued diligence most.Collection: History
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.Collection: Food
When people discuss the 1960s and the great Civil Rights Era, they often speak in romantic terms as if there wasn't immense work put in, and as if there wasn't immense sacrifice that took place. But none of those battles were easily fought and won; there were sustained movements behind them.Collection: Romantic
We need an amendment that gives us the right to vote protected by the federal government and the Constitution.Collection: Government
The dream was not to put one black family in the White House, the dream was to make everything equal in everybody's house.Collection: Family
We're not anti-police... we're anti-police brutality.
If O.J. had been accused of killing his black wife, you would not have seen the same passion stirred up.
Civilians are arrested every single day - including innocent ones - and they must wait until their day in court in order to argue their side of the story. Police officers must be subjected to the same rules.
We have defeated Jim Crow, but now we have to deal with his son, James Crow Jr., esquire.
My ordination in the Church of God in Christ was at age 9, and I later became a Baptist minister, which I am today.
When we look at the situation in Ferguson, Missouri and the tragic death of Michael Brown, we are reminded of the importance of who we elect to our city councils, who sits on our local board of education committees, who we pick to represent us in Congress, in the Senate and more.
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.
If you can get the proper definition of trouble, then we can find out who the real troublemakers are.
One of the reasons I get so much joy out of my own children's childhoods is that I'm having my first childhood myself.
Demonstrations must be dignified and nonviolent, as the overwhelming protests in Ferguson and Staten Island have been. Do not confuse anarchists who don't want the system to work and thugs who want to exploit a situation with the majority who from day one have operated with impeccable nonviolence and clear goals.
Let me be clear: as I have said repeatedly, I do not believe that all police officers are bad, nor do I believe that most are bad. But there must be a transparent, impartial and fair system to judge those that engage in criminal or unethical acts.
As I stood and gave the eulogy for young Michael Brown last week, I kept thinking about the fact that this child should have been in college instead of laying in a coffin.
Either we need to redefine what probable cause means and say that police are not subject to it, or we arrest officers right away just as we would with any other person accused of committing a crime. Either we write new laws or enforce existing ones; we cannot have it both ways.
It is up to us to change laws on the books like 'Stand Your Ground' laws and push elected officials to enact regulations that hold police officers to the same standards as the rest of society. This is why we vote.
I very rarely read any fiction. I love biographies; I read about all kinds of people. I love theology and some philosophy.
From racial profiling and being pulled over just for 'driving while black' to this new phenomenon of killing unarmed people out of some preconceived idea of fear, our lives and our children's lives are not being valued.
The horrific cases in Ferguson, in Staten Island with the death of Eric Garner, and all across the country serve as stark reminders that we must have a say in who polices us, and how that policing is done. We must, we must, let our voices be heard on Election Day.
National Action Network, the group I founded, has affiliates or chapters in over 40 cities around the country.
Who defines terrorists? Today's terrorist is tomorrow's friend.
I do believe the Democratic party has moved far to the right. I do believe that the party has a bunch of elephants running around in donkey clothes.
Bill Clinton strikes me as the kind of guy who goes wherever the polls lead him, rather than leading the polls.
Dr. King used Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and to passive resistance.
Dr. King's general principles are universal. But the things he confronted took place in another era.
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.
How do you make things fair?
I grew up in the 1950s and '60s, when it was almost a holiday when a black act would go on Ed Sullivan.
I was the first candidate to come out against this war, spoke at every anti-war march.
I was there during the first elections in South Africa. I watched them take down the apartheid flag and raise the new flag.
I won vice president of my student body in high school. That doesn't mean anything.
I'm a patriot in the truest sense of the word.
I've never done anything else in my life other than preach and be an activist. Way before I was known.
I've seen enough things to know that if you just keep on going, if you turn the corner, the sun will be shining.
I've seen too much in life to give up.
If Charlton Heston can have a constitutional right carry a rifle, why can't grandma have a constitutional right to health care?
If you play the theatrics too much, you get in the way of your own cause.
It seems some have chosen to ignore or have simply forgotten the big-picture vision promoted by Dr. King and his kin.
James Brown became my father. He would talk to me the way a father talked to a son. He became the father I never had.
My ministry's always been one of social activism. I think a responsible minister must be at some levels involved in the social order.
The boxing world is full of all kinds of corruption.