Al Is The Man !

There were times when Al Sharpton put his foot in his
big mouth and tried to push his weight around but when
he was wrong he admitted it and moved on, not allowing
himself to be consumed with bitterness. Al sticks to his
guns and continues to show up and stand up for those
of us that need to be heard when the system just
won't give a brother or sister an even break. Today
I have much admiration for Reverend Al Sharpton and
even though he's toned down a bit since his early days
the brother is one of my hereos and one all us black folks
can be proud of. Check out the story below and let me
know what and how you feel about Al Sharpton.


On a rather small, anonymous stage in Harlem, in an old building a few doors down from a Laundromat and a Dunkin’ Donuts, something unexpected happens to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s sizable and nationally known persona. It shrinks accordingly.
Every Saturday morning, Mr. Sharpton opens the doors of his National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem for an “action rally.” The meetings are something more than a rally — part radio show, church service, comedy revue, civil rights demonstration, town hall meeting and fund-raising drive. The rallies are broadcast live on WLIB-AM, the city’s first black-owned radio station.

On most Saturdays, the so-called House of Justice on West 145th Street can feel as casual as the International House of Pancakes 10 blocks south. Anyone can walk in and take a seat. The words etched onto the large tinted window at the entrance, facing 145th Street, read not House of Justice or National Action Network but Diamond Gym, the storefront’s former occupant, which explains why the walls are lined with mirrors.
Yesterday, in a fast-paced 90 minutes before a crowd of fewer than 100 people, Mr. Sharpton led a drummer and a pianist through a gospel song (“Sing it like you mean it,” he sang into the microphone), criticized the federal government’s slow pace of rebuilding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and paid tribute to the sacrifices of both Jesus Christ and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He happened also to make national news, which sometimes happens at his rallies, too. He called for the firing of Don Imus, the syndicated radio host, after Mr. Imus referred on Wednesday to the students who play for the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed ho’s.”After the television cameras had left, Mr. Sharpton refocused on the nuts and bolts of his civil rights organization, signing up seven new members to the National Action Network. Then he taught an introductory class for new members.

“It gives him an energy that helps him and keeps him propelling along,” said Michael A. Hardy, a lawyer, longtime friend of Mr. Sharpton’s and the host of the radio show and rally. “It is the tent that holds everyone in the movement, whether you’re high profile and a celebrity, or a no-profile but important.” It is here on Saturdays that Mr. Sharpton pleads for donations for his network (“I need some more hundreds,” he told the audience recently) and wades through unglamorous organizational housekeeping.

Mr. Sharpton has been holding Saturday rallies broadcast on the radio since 1991, when he founded the National Action Network. Some of those in the audience are network members who have been going to the rallies for years. They remember the auditorium of Public School 175, where the rallies were first held. They remember the speech the Rev. Jesse Jackson gave years ago, when he dubbed the network’s headquarters the House of Justice. And they remember the Saturday, in July 2002, when Michael Jackson depicted Thomas D. Mottola, a record company executive, as the devil.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/