Al Sharpton- Activist or Political Power Broker-

Public figures come in all types. Some are conservative, others liberal, and some are constantly mired in controversy. This is especially true with people who promote themselves and their ambitions under the guise of religion. Charlatans claiming to be the voice of God, self-professed saviors who dive deeply into politics with the aim of obtaining fame and fortune, are not unheard of. On this episode of Forgotten History, we examine one such creature of habit, a self-professed reverend who has no church, and a track record of questionable judgment stoking racial division, and a checkered history of volatile and illegal activity that should be a warning to us all. Who is Al Sharpton? Why is he controversial? What were his actions? Why was he never held to the same standard as conservatives? Is he taken seriously by anyone? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army and Marine Corps veteran, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. was born on October 3, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York City. Sharpton has always been a showman. In 1969, he was appointed by Jesse Jackson to be the youth director of the New York City branch of Operation Breadbasket, focused on the promotion of new and better jobs for African Americans. In 1972, he was the youth director for the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. He graduated from Samuel J. Tilden High School and attended Brooklyn College, dropping out after two years in 1975. Between 1973 and 1980, Sharpton served as James Brown's tour manager. Sharpton jumped into the national spotlight after Bernard Goetz, a previous survivor of street violence, shot four African American men on the New York City Subway No. 2 train in Manhattan on December 22, 1984. Goetz was acquitted of all charges except for carrying an unlicensed firearm. And please see our video on Bernie Goetz. Sharpton, who never led a crusade against black-on-white or black-on-black gang crime, led several marches protesting what he saw as the weak prosecution of the case. Sharpton and other civil rights leaders said Goetz's actions were racist and requested a federal civil rights investigation, which finally concluded the shooting was due to an attempted robbery and not race. Sharpton became an FBI informant in 1983 following his role in a drug sting involving the Colombo crime family Captain Michael Franzese. Sharpton recorded incriminating conversations with Genovese and Gambino family mobsters contributing to the indictments of several underworld figures. Sharpton is referred to in FBI documents as CI or Confidential Informant 7. Sharpton is alleged to have secretly recorded conversations with black activists in the 1980s regarding Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, and other underground black militants. Veteran activist Ahmed Obafemi told the New York Daily News that he had long suspected Sharpton of taping him with the bugged briefcase. On December 20, 1986, three black men were assaulted in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens by a mob of white men. The three men were chased by their attackers onto the Belt Parkway, where one of them, Michael Griffith, was struck and killed by a passing motorist. A week later, on December 27, Sharpton led 1,200 demonstrators on a march through the streets of Howard Beach. Residents of the neighborhood, who were overwhelmingly white, yelled racial epithets at the protesters, who were largely black. A special prosecutor was appointed by New York Governor Mario Cuomo after the two surviving victims refused to cooperate with the Queens District Attorney. The case propelled Sharpton to national prominence. And, of course, never one to miss an opportunity to play the role of a grieved savior and get national attention, Sharpton immediately jumped on the Tawana Brawley case. In November 1987, the 15-year-old from Wappingers Falls, New York, went missing for four days. She was found lying in a garbage bag, seemingly unconscious, smeared with feces, her clothing torn and burned, and with racial slurs written on her body, claiming that she had been abducted and raped by several white men, including police officers. Of course, Sharpton, without any formal legal training or education, along with attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Ronan Mason, became prominent advisors in the case. They helped to bring public attention to Brawley's claims. They also made a very big mistake. Sharpton publicly accused Prosecutor Stephen Pagonis of being involved in the assault and responsible for racially motivated cover-ups. A grand jury was convened in 1988 with a special prosecutor assigned and, after reviewing extensive evidence, such as medical records, interviews, and physical evidence, they concluded that there was no truth to her story. The following reasons the grand jury returned with a no bill were as follows. The rape kit showed no signs of rape or sexual intercourse. Despite claiming days outdoors in freezing conditions, Brawley showed no signs of exposure, hypothermia, or elemental damage. The racial slurs on her body were upside down, suggesting self-application. The feces matched that of a neighbor's dog. Stephen Pagonis sued Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason for defamation, and Sharpton was found liable for several defamatory statements and ordered to pay an initial damage of $65,000, which others helped him pay. A later jury verdict on liability ruled $345,000 in damages to be allocated across all defendants. Brawley herself was also ordered to pay damages for defaulting in a defamation suit. Sharpton said that he believed Brawley's story at the time, though he has expressed some regret for the way he conducted himself, especially in personal attacks. He openly disagreed with the grand jury publicly. The case raised serious issues about race, justice, media sensationalism, and how civil rights leaders engage with alleged victims. Sharpton inflamed already tense racial dynamics without enough basis in fact, but he could have cared less. Black community members felt the grand jury's findings were in error, deeply dividing the community. Sharpton then took advantage of this to inflame the situation for his personal agenda. An ambulance chaser with cause, that is his mantra. It remains a lesson in the danger of rushing to judgment, but also in the deeper issues of trust, race, and power. Sadly, Sharpton appears to have never learned this lesson. To say that he has a habit of rushing to judgment is being kind to Sharpton. Many people believe that even if he knows a case is fraudulent, he will jump on it to get face time on TV and gather donations from the misinformed. For Sharpton was never very far away from exploiting a controversy. In Crown Heights in 1991, a Hasidic Jewish driver of a station wagon, driven by Yosef Lifsh, hit another car and careened onto the sidewalk at 8.21pm on Monday, August 19, 1991, accidentally killing a black child, seven-year-old Gavin Kato. Lifsh was part of a three-car motorcade carrying the deceased spiritual leader of the Lubavitcher Hasidic community, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. Sharpton made several charged statements referencing Apartheid Ambulance Service, calling Jewish residents diamond merchants, and suggesting that the driver was drunk, which was later proven to be untrue. Continuing his ambulance chasing methods, Sharpton threw himself into the fray. The grand jury declined to indict Lifsh. The ruling was that under New York law at the time, the single act of losing control of a vehicle, even when resulting in death, didn't necessarily meet the threshold for criminal negligence in that context. Sharpton was not even present at the accident, but became one of the leaders of protest and made insane inflammatory speeches which he later said he regretted. At least one of his quoted lines in that period was, if the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house. Sharpton stoked the flames leading to the ensuing riots, which lasted three days, and included actions such as looting, assault, property damage, and anti-Semitic chants. According to those who know him, Sharpton is not that intelligent and he knows it, but he brought value to the movement. In my personal opinion, he has become a liability to his party joining a long line of others. That's because of his rhetoric. February 13, 1994, Sharpton displayed his ignorance of history and showed his true colors when he told a student audience at Kean University in New Jersey, quote, white folks was in the caves while we was building empires. We built pyramids before Donald Trump even knew what architecture was. We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it. Sharpton defended his comments by saying that the term homo was not homophobic. However, he added that he no longer uses the term. But if there is not a controversy that gets him in the news, he creates them, such as in 2001 when he was jailed for 90 days on trespassing charges while protesting against U.S. military target practice exercises in Puerto Rico near a United States Navy bombing site. Sharpton was held in a Puerto Rican lockup for two days and then imprisoned at Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn on May 25, 2001. He was released on What he did was idiotic, but it kept him in the headlines. Sharpton and his non-profit National Action Network paid themselves large bonuses receiving donations that raised conflict of interest concerns, such as for interviews and owing back taxes. Sharpton awarded himself nearly $1 million in bonuses over several years. Over the years, Sharpton has used charged, confrontational, and inflammatory language, accusing people of racism, comparing officials to Hitler, and strong criticism of conservative institutions before full facts were settled. In several cases, opponents accuse him of rushing to judgment. Some think he errs too often on the activism side without enough fact-checking. In most cases, he just lied. Remember when the Obama administration used the IRS to go after political opponents around 92, businesses, and people who supported conservative speech and political ideas? If people were found in tax trouble, they lost their homes, businesses, bank accounts, and sometimes their freedom. But not Reverend Dow. In 2013, the IRS admitted that its Cincinnati office had used inappropriate criteria like searching for Tea Party or Patriots when flagging certain non-profit applications for extra tax scrutiny. Conservative groups alleged that this was politically motivated, that the Obama administration or senior officials used the IRS to target opponents. In 2017, there was a settlement after the first Trump administration opened the books and the IRS under Obama and its director, Lois Lerner, apologized for subjecting conservative groups to greater scrutiny and acknowledging mishandling. Conservative groups received financial compensation. But Sharpton was charged with failure to file state income tax returns for 1990-1993 and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for failing to file a New York state income tax return. In the 2000s, that liability ballooned from under $1 million around 2003 to approximately $1.9 million by 2006. Interest and penalties had accrued. He was charged with various counts of tax evasion, larceny, and fraud by failing to file a state income tax for 1986. He made various laughable claims about his finances and responsibilities. The Federal Election Commission audit determined that Sharpton, during the Sharpton 2004 campaign committee and related entities, misstated receipts and disbursements, accepted prohibited corporate in-kind contributions, failed to report certain contributions, under-reported cash on hand, and owed penalties. They agreed to pay civil penalties totaling $285,000. In 2009, a federal criminal probe into Sharpton's finances was dropped after Barack Obama became president. This included the New York state tax debts such as $916,000 in failure to pay those taxes from 2008 to 2010. His National Action Network also violated the law and failed to pay years of back payroll taxes in violation of federal 501c non-profit guidelines. Then, prosecutors miraculously decided the issues were better handled as civil matters, whereas the IRS, state, and city tax agencies would not prosecute him as federal crimes. No Republican got that break. Donald Trump was charged with such crimes, but that case was also dismissed due to proof of no crimes having ever been committed. Then, a forensic accounting in 2014 proved that Sharpton and his for-profit companies Raw Talent, Revels Communications, etc. had state and federal tax liabilities totaling about $4.5 million before interest and penalties. Sharpton has always claimed that his tax liability was resolved, but there is no paperwork proving this. He should have gone to federal prison for tax evasion, but like Hillary Clinton, he got a pass and White House access under Obama and Joe Biden, who had the case dismissed in total. He still owes money, and the case was buried. In 2014, Glenn Thrush of Politico described Sharpton as an advisor to President Barack Obama and as Obama's go-to man on racial issues. Therefore, Sharpton had political cover. In 2018, the National Action Network sold Sharpton's life story rights for $531,000 to its own non-profit, keeping the money in-house. Tax filings disclosed, NAN had paid some state tax debts of $172,000, but still owed significant amounts to New York. From 2015 through 2025, there are no reliable public reportings of fresh personal tax enforcement actions against Sharpton, whether criminal or civil, beyond those older liens and payment plans. Editorial pieces still cite the 2014 moment. They don't document a new balance. Hopefully, the new Trump IRS will sort this out. It is only fair, after all. Sharpton really jumped onto the world stage following the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, as Sharpton led several protests and rallies criticizing the Sanford Police Department over the handling of the shooting and called for Zimmerman's arrest. He said, Zimmerman should have been arrested that night. You cannot defend yourself against a pack of Skittles and iced tea. Sean Hannity accused Sharpton and MSNBC of rushing to judgment in the case as usual. Following the acquittal of Zimmerman, Sharpton called the not guilty verdict an atrocity and a slap in the face to those that believe in justice. Subsequently, Sharpton and his organization, National Action Network, held rallies in several cities denouncing the verdict and called for justice for Trayvon. Sharpton did not care about the evidence proving that the shooting was, in fact, in self-defense. Reports from Federal Election Committee filings show that the Harris Walls campaign of 2024 donated $500,000 to Sharpton personally before he interviewed Harris on MSNBC. The network said it was unaware of the payola and no on-air disclosure was ever noted. He never did that for a Republican candidate, but he did lie about them. Sharpton often frames his lies as being in service of activism, civil rights, or responding to perceived injustice. Whether that justifies lying about people or events is a normative question, and most of his many outrageous claims have been disproved. But Sharpton has been the trigger for many terrible events. In Harlem, protests were occurring over evictions. In 1995, during a protest over an eviction-rent dispute involving Freddy's Fashion Mart in Harlem, Sharpton referred to the property owner, Fred Harari, as a white interloper. Hours later, a gunman entered the store and shot several people and set it on fire. But there's no evidence showing Sharpton directly called for that violence. He has denied responsibility, saying the perpetrator was a critic of his approach. Many of his statements are rhetorical, provocative, and metaphorical, slogans like no justice, no peace, strong criticism of police or public officials, calling out systemic racism. These have been interpreted by critics as incitement by implication, but that's a different standard legally and rhetorically. To be fair, you can't blame Sharpton for everything. Sharpton recalled that Trump donated office space to Jesse Jackson's Wall Street Project. Trump had a great relationship with New York's black community and received many awards from that black community for his philanthropy and job creation. Trump was invited and attended ribbon cuttings at Sharpton's National Action Network convention in 2002. But when Trump ran for the presidency in 2016, the black Democrats turned on him. And then the lies began and Sharpton led the charge, followed by the mainstream media who hired him to keep up the charade. On May 7, 2007, during the presidential campaign, Sharpton was accused of bigotry for comments he made in a debate with Christopher Hitchens regarding Mitt Romney and his religion, Mormonism. Sharpton said, as for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways. So don't worry about that. That's a temporary situation. Then on May 9, during an interview on Paula Zahn's Now, Sharpton said that his views on Mormonism were based on the Mormon Church's traditionally racist views regarding blacks and its interpretation of the so-called Curse of Ham. Sharpton later apologized to the Mormon Church. Today, Sharpton has no real job skills or track record of honest employment. He supports the insane DEI policy, stating, Why do we have DEI? We have DEI because you denied us diversity, you denied us equity, you denied us inclusion. Sharpton has said that companies rolling back DEI policies are sending black people to the back of the bus, and he has threatened boycotts if those rollbacks continue. He must have forgotten about the millions of wealthy black Americans, even billionaires, and those who worked hard to be successful, unlike grifters such as himself. He's encouraged consumers to support companies that maintain DEI commitments. Example, leading a buy-in at a Harlem Costco to reward them for keeping DEI policies. Sharpton has met with CEOs, such as Target's CEO, to address concerns about rolling back DEI. He's also asked for clarity from companies like PepsiCo when their DEI commitments were reported to have been scaled back. He probably did not like their responses that hiring qualified people regardless of race over racial requirements was simply good business. But Sharpton, in true form, led a march on Wall Street in New York City to push back against rollbacks in DEI efforts. He's organized and called for boycotts such as shopping at firms that still retain DEI versus boycotting those that drop them to use economic influence. At the funeral of George Floyd, a man he never knew, on June 4, 2020, Sharpton delivered a eulogy where he called for the four Minneapolis policemen involved in Floyd's so-called murder to be brought to justice. Sharpton had to race to get to the funeral on time. He could not miss another photo opportunity. At no time did Sharpton say anything about Floyd's long and violent criminal history and drug use. Prior to that, in August 2017, Sharpton called for the federal government to stop maintaining the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. because Thomas Jefferson owned 600 slaves and claimed that he had a sexually abusive relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. Sharpton must have forgotten that it was Thomas Jefferson who banned the importation of African slaves under his presidency. He said taxpayer funds should not be used to care for monuments to slave owners and that private museums were preferable. He went on to elaborate, saying, People need to understand that people were enslaved. Our families were victims of this. Public monuments to people like Jefferson are supported by public funds. You're asking me to subsidize the insult to my family. But Sharpton, to my knowledge, never demanded that public funds stop going to Yale University, which is a private Ivy League school and founded by the largest and richest slave owner in the American colonies. Well, just a thought. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. If you liked what you saw, please click like, share, and subscribe. And if you would like to assist with the ever-increasing costs of production, please consider becoming a channel member and joining our Patreon page. Please check out our merchandise store. And thanks for watching.