Name: Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr.
Birth date: October 3, 1954
Education: Tilden High School, Brooklyn, 1972; Brooklyn College (dropped out)
Career: Ordained minister, 1964-present; founder civil rights group National Action Network, 1991-present; candidate for U.S. Senate, 1992, 1994; candidate for New York mayor, 1997
Family: Wife, Kathy Lee Jordan; two daughters.
Quote: "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

Preacher ends another electoral bid

(CNN) -- Controversial, conversational and confrontational, the Rev. Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. staged a colorful but ultimately unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign on a platform of racial equality, education and health care rights. 

The longtime activist ended his bid at the Democratic nomination on March 15, 2004, conceding defeat to Sen. John Kerry but pledging to continue campaigning for his "urban agenda."

The outcome was predictable, according to analysts who said Sharpton would have difficulty overcoming his political inexperience and limited appeal before becoming a top White House contender.

Sharpton's reputation would seem to work against any challenger for the presidency, said CNN political analyst William Schneider. "He's seen as divisive, contentious, confrontational," Schneider said, "all the things the Democrats don't really need."

Born in 1954 in New York City, Sharpton rose from boy-preacher to political activist -- founding his signature organization, the National Action Network -- in 1991. NAN raises money for inner city youth and fights drug abuse.

The son of a carpenter-contractor and a cleaning woman, Sharpton was raised in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood.

First preaching at age 4 and ordained as a Pentecostal minister at age 10, Sharpton was leading his own youth movement by his teenage years. It was then he began rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as Jesse Jackson and singer James Brown.

At age 14, Jackson named Sharpton the youth director for Operation Breadbasket, a campaign to improve economic conditions in black neighborhoods. A few years later, Sharpton befriended Brown and in 1980 married one of Brown's backup singers -- Kathy Lee Jordan.
The lightning rod

The 1980s defined Sharpton's public persona, as he transformed from preacher to civil rights advocate to activist, making a name for himself as a spokesman for sometimes dubious causes. 

"He's got this very checkered past where he has had problems with the law," said Stuart Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report. "He's defended people who -- it turned out -- were indefensible; he's just become a lightening rod for controversy. That, and the fact that he never held elective office disqualifies him as a serious candidate for president."

At a February 2003 speech in Washington, Sharpton joked about what others had been saying about his past. "They say, 'Well reverend, candidates like you have baggage,'" Sharpton said. "Well, everybody in politics has baggage. Just some folk have enough money when they check in a hotel to get others to carry their bags."

Sharpton led protests on numerous issues, including the 1985 Bernhard Goetz subway shootings of four black teenagers, the 1986 killing of a black man and the beating of another in Howard Beach, New York, and the 1989 murder of 16-year-old Yusuf Hawkins by a white mob in Brooklyn's Bensonhurst neighborhood. 

Sharpton made national headlines in 1987 after he became an advocate for Tawana Brawley, a 15-year-old, black New Yorker who claimed six white police officers abducted and raped her. 

A grand jury declared the story a hoax. Later, Sharpton had to pay $65,000 for defaming an assistant district attorney he accused of being involved in the alleged attack.

In 1989 Sharpton was charged with 67 counts of fraud, larceny and felony tax evasion in connection with the National Youth Movement, a group he founded in the 1970s. He was acquitted on all counts. In 1993 he pled guilty to a separate count of failing to file a New York state income tax return -- a misdemeanor. 

In his first political campaign, the 1992 U.S. Senate primary in New York, Sharpton came in third of four Democrats, trailing former Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro.

Two years later, he challenged widely respected three-term incumbent Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the Democratic primary and lost. But he improved his tally, garnering 26 percent of the vote.

In 1997, Sharpton lost the New York City mayoral primary, but he did receive 32 percent of the vote, nearly forcing a runoff. 

Although Sharpton failed in his three previous attempts to win election to public office, some analysts said he shouldn't be ignored. 

"His strength is, he's very smart," Schneider said. "He's rarely foolish. He says what he thinks and he's very direct and that surprises a lot of people because they think of him as some kind of a rabble-rouser, which he can be. But I think he contributes to the debate, no question about it."

Rothenberg agreed that Sharpton "tells it like it is."

"He's probably the most entertaining speaker in the Democratic field," Rothenberg said. "He's terrific at beating up Bush and at rallying Democratic partisans to traditional Democratic issues."
'Elephants in donkey clothes'

Sharpton described himself as a true Democrat running an arms-wide-open campaign. 

"I'm not running an African-American campaign," Sharpton told CNN's Bob Novak in January 2003. "We're running a broad-based campaign that includes African-Americans and Latinos and gays and lesbians and laborers and others."

Sharpton argued that Democrats and Republicans had become too similar on issues such as war, health care, business deregulation and taxes. It was his goal, he said, to step forward and sound the alarm. 

"I believe the [Democratic] Party has moved far to the right," Sharpton told Novak. "I do believe that the Party has a bunch of elephants running around in donkey clothes."

Rothenberg said leaning left is Sharpton's Achilles heel. "His weakness is, he's regarded as so liberal. He's regarded as a kind of a carnival barker, somebody whose main goal is to sell you snake oil," Rothenberg said.

The Sharpton Top Ten, listed on his Web site, included support for a constitutional amendment that would declare education, health care and voting as basic human rights.

He also ran in support of affirmative action programs, anti-death penalty legislation and statehood voting rights for residents of Washington, D.C.

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Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? [Bush says] the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln. 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 was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats.

Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is that our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs. This vote is sacred to us. This vote can't be bargained away. This vote can't be given away. Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.

SHARPTON: I think is not an issue any more of just marriage. This is an issue of human rights. And I think it is dangerous to give states the right to deal with human rights questions. That's how we ended up with slavery and segregation going forward a long time. I, under no circumstances, believe we ought to give states rights to gay and lesbians' human rights. Whatever my personal feelings may be about gay and lesbian marriages, unless you are prepared to say gays and lesbians are not human beings, they should have the same constitutional right of any other human being. 

Q: How would you do that? 

SHARPTON: I would say that they have the constitutional right to do whatever anyone else can. Bush is trying to go from race baiting with quotas in 2000 to gay baiting in 2004 [with is call for a DOMA Amendment]. And all of us ought to be united that he does not scapegoat the gay and lesbian community like he did minorities four years ago.

A: No. The flag represents a thought, a philosophy and a political movement built on racism, slavery and rape. You can't redo the flag and what it stands for. We cannot rest until that flag is down everywhere in this country. It is a shame that you will take young men and young women from South Carolina, send them abroad, they die under one American flag, they have to come home and live under two flags.

A: No, I don't think so. I think it is wrong and distasteful, but I think people have a right to express themselves.

SHARPTON: I am unilaterally opposed to any civil or human right being left to states' rights. That is a dangerous precedent. I think the federal government has the obligation to protect all citizens on a federal level. And if we start going back to states' rights, we're going back to pre-Civil War days, and I think that that, in its nature, is wrong.

DEAN: We do have African-American & Latino workers in state government.

SHARPTON: I said under your administration. Do you have a senior member of your cabinet that was black or brown?

DEAN: We had a senior member of my staff on my 5th floor.

SHARPTON: No, your cabinet.

DEAN: No, we did not. [But the cabinet has only] six members.

 SHARPTON: Then you need to let me talk to you about race in this country.

DEAN: If the percentage of African-Americans in your state was any indication of what your views on race were, then Trent Lott would be Martin Luther King. 

SHARPTON: But I don't think that that answers the question. If you want to lecture people on race, you ought to have the background and track record in order to do that. Governors import talent. Governors reach all over the country to make sure they have diversity

DEAN: The Confederate flag is a painful symbol to African-Americans in this country because of what it represented. When we campaign, we've got to talk. They say race in the South or anyplace else in America, we've got to say jobs, because everybody needs a job, doesn't matter what color they are or where they come from. We need to talk about the things that everybody needs: jobs, education & health care.

SHARPTON: Blacks in South Carolina are double unemployed to whites. We can't use a class formula to go around that issue. Secondly, just having conversations with whites without real legislation, without real executive action is to trivialize our problems. We don't need people talking to whites. We need people to do something about racism and about discrimination. Don't reduce this to a coffee shop conversation. We need action. And a president leads, like Lyndon Johnson did. They don't just have a conversation.

A: I've spent a lot of time trying to address the issue of youth voter registration. We've spent time on campuses in this campaign of all races trying to register young people. I think if we bring young people out, it not only is good for them, it's good for the country. You can't just lay down and accept being marginalized. Even if you're knocked down, that's somebody else's fault, you have to get up, that's your obligation.

DEAN: Rev. Jesse Jackson went to a South Carolina trailer park which was inhabited by mostly white folks making $25,000 a year. We need to reach out to those people, too, because they suffer as well. I understand the legacy of racism and bigotry in this country. We need to bring folks together in this race, just like Martin Luther King tried to do before he was killed. He was right. And I make no apologies for reaching out to poor white people. 

SHARPTON: But Confederate flags are not for white people. Jackson went to South Carolina with all of us protesting the flag. The issue's not poor southern whites. Most poor southern whites don't wear a Confederate flag, and you ought not try to stereotype that.

A: I proposed that he just apologize for what was clearly an insensitive statement. You must remember, it was raised by one of the young people in the audience. I was frankly surprised that the governor didn't say that he was sorry if he offended someone. When blacks see that flag we are looking at a flag that represented murder, lynching and rape. That is no casual thing. For him to say in any way that that could be tolerated is extremely offensive to a lot of people. I think in reaching out to other constituencies you don't do it at the expense of those that have been loyal to you. It is not a big tent strategy if you offend those who are already under it.

SHARPTON: We need to have an honest discussion about what still separates us in America. If you read the Wall Street Journal and the Amsterdam News, you wouldn't know you were in the same town. We need to really talk about that in America. And a lot of people don't want to do that because it's politically risky.

A: I would definitely revisit them. They seem to be a throw-back to the COINTELPRO days of J. Edgar Hoover, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Black Panthers - making legal today what was illegal then. These "Patriot Acts" appear to be using the legitimate fear of 9/11 to pass illegitimate legislation. This legislation is unpatriotic in the most patriotic sense.

SHARPTON: You have people that are waving the Confederate Flag. They didn't wave it in Baghdad, they wave it in Columbia. And you would talk about I'm a racial polarizer because I say that we should treat people with equal protection under the law. The Republicans try to float that. We can defeat that when all of us come together and have one standard. That's why we're celebrating that 40 years [anniversary of the Civil Rights March] later in Birmingham this weekend.

Thank you.

Tonight I want to address my remarks in two parts.

One, I'm honored to address the delegates here.

Last Friday, I had the experience in Detroit of hearing President George Bush make a speech. And in the speech, he asked certain questions. I hope he's watching tonight. I would like to answer your questions, Mr. President.

To the chairman, our delegates, and all that are assembled, we're honored and glad to be here tonight.

I'm glad to be joined by supporters and friends from around the country. I'm glad to be joined by my family, Kathy, Dominique, who will be 18, and Ashley.

We are here 228 years after right here in Boston we fought to establish the freedoms of America. The first person to die in the Revolutionary War is buried not far from here, a black man from Barbados, named Crispus Attucks.

Forty years ago, in 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party stood at the Democratic convention in Atlantic City fighting to preserve voting rights for all America and all Democrats, regardless of race or gender.

Hamer's stand inspired Dr. King's march in Selma, which brought about the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Twenty years ago, Reverend Jesse Jackson stood at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, again, appealing to the preserve those freedoms.

Tonight, we stand with those freedoms at risk and our security as citizens in question.

I have come here tonight to say, that the only choice we have to preserve our freedoms at this point in history is to elect John Kerry the president of the United States.

I stood with both John Kerry and John Edwards on over 30 occasions during the primary season. I not only debated them, I watched them, I observed their deeds, I looked into their eyes. I am convinced that they are men who say what they mean and mean what they say.

I'm also convinced that at a time when a vicious spirit in the body politic of this country that attempts to undermine America's freedoms -- our civil rights, and civil liberties -- we must leave this city and go forth and organize this nation for victory for our party and John Kerry and John Edwards in November.

And let me quickly say, this is not just about winning an election. It's about preserving the principles on which this very nation was founded.

Look at the current view of our nation worldwide as a results of our unilateral foreign policy. We went from unprecedented international support and solidarity on September 12, 2001, to hostility and hatred as we stand here tonight. We can't survive in the world by ourselves.

How did we squander this opportunity to unite the world for democracy and to commit to a global fight against hunger and disease?

We did it with a go-it-alone foreign policy based on flawed intelligence. We were told that we were going to Iraq because there were weapons of mass destruction. We've lost hundreds of soldiers. We've spent $200 billion dollars at a time when we had record state deficits. And when it became clear that there were no weapons, they changed the premise for the war and said: No, we went because of other reasons.

If I told you tonight, "Let's leave the FleetCenter, we're in danger," and when you get outside, you ask me, Reverend Al, "What is the danger?" and I say, "It don't matter. We just needed some fresh air," I have misled you and we were misled.

We are also faced with the prospect of in the next four years that two or more of the Supreme Court Justice seats will become available. This year we celebrated the anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education.

This court has voted five to four on critical issues of women's rights and civil rights. It is frightening to think that the gains of civil and women rights and those movements in the last century could be reversed if this administration is in the White House in these next four years.

I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school.

This is not about a party. This is about living up to the promise of America. The promise of America says we will guarantee quality education for all children and not spend more money on metal detectors than computers in our schools.

The promise of America guarantees health care for all of its citizens and doesn't force seniors to travel to Canada to buy prescription drugs they can't afford here at home.

The promise of America provides that those who work in our health care system can afford to be hospitalized in the very beds they clean up every day.

The promise of America is that government does not seek to regulate your behavior in the bedroom, but to guarantee your right to provide food in the kitchen.

The issue of government is not to determine who may sleep together in the bedroom, it's to help those that might not be eating in the kitchen.

The promise of America that we stand for human rights, whether it's fighting against slavery in the Sudan, where right now Joe Madison and others are fasting, around what is going on in the Sudan; AIDS in Lesotho; a police misconduct in this country.

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.

The promise of America is that every citizen vote is counted and protected, and election schemes do not decide the election.

It, to me, is a glaring contradiction that we would fight, and rightfully so, to get the right to vote for the people in the capital of Iraq in Baghdad, but still don't give the federal right to vote for the people in the capital of the United States, in Washington, D.C.

Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African- American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I have raised questions. But let me answer your question.

You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. 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.

Mr. President, you said would we have more leverage if both parties got our votes, but we didn't come this far playing political games. It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats.

Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us.

This vote can't be bargained away.

This vote can't be given away.

Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.

And there's a whole generation of young leaders that have come forward across this country that stand on integrity and stand on their traditions, those that have emerged with John Kerry and John Edwards as partners, like Greg Meeks, like Barack Obama, like our voter registration director, Marjorie Harris, like those that are in the trenches.

And we come with strong family values. Family values is not just those with two-car garages and a retirement plan. Retirement plans are good. But family values also are those who had to make nothing stretch into something happening, who had to make ends meet.

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.

And I wanted somebody in my community -- I wanted to show that example. As I ran for president, I hoped that one child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across the stage with governors and senators and know they didn't have to be a drug dealer, they didn't have to be a hoodlum, they didn't have to be a gangster, they could stand up from a broken home, on welfare, and they could run for president of the United States.

As you know, I live in New York. I was there September 11th when that despicable act of terrorism happened.

A few days after, I left home, my family had taken in a young man who lost his family. And as they gave comfort to him, I had to do a radio show that morning. When I got there, my friend James Entome (ph) said, "Reverend, we're going to stop at a certain hour and play a song, synchronized with 990 other stations."

I said, "That's fine."

He said, "We're dedicating it to the victims of 9/11."

I said, "What song are you playing?"

He said "America the Beautiful." The particular station I was at, the played that rendition song by Ray Charles.

As you know, we lost Ray a few weeks ago, but I sat there that morning and listened to Ray sing through those speakers, "Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains' majesty across the fruited plain."

And it occurred to me as I heard Ray singing, that Ray wasn't singing about what he knew, because Ray had been blind since he was a child. He hadn't seen many purple mountains. He hadn't seen many fruited plains. He was singing about what he believed to be.

Mr. President, we love America, not because all of us have seen the beauty all the time.

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.

Starting in November, let's make America beautiful again.

Thank you. And God bless you.