Al Sharpton Quotes

African American reverend
Soft Political Tyranny

"I think Winston Churchill was an imperialist. I think Ronald Reagan turned the country backward."

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

"Clearly, [President Bush] lied. Now if he is an unconscious liar, and doesn't realize when he's lying, then we're really in trouble."

"There is a systemic and methodical strategy to eliminate our people from doing business off 125th Street. I want to make it clear ... that we will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business."

"I'm in Los Angeles. For the president to say, 'Bring it on,' almost like daring and provoking Iraqis to kill American soldiers..."he sounds more like a gang leader in South-Central L.A. than one that is trying to institute a policy of democracy and reconstruction in the world."

"I'm concerned about reproductive rights for low income women. Far too many women that I'm familiar with have had to make decisions based on their income that resulted in disaster, that if this present administration and those that want to turn back the clock on Roe vs. Wade have their way, will put them back in those situations."

"I trust the decisions of women because it is a human right that Roe vs. Wade decided on. This is not about abortion, this is about human rights, this is about human dignity, this is about women having the say-so over their own body and over how they will decide to proceed with their life, and if America is to be America, we must protect women's right to choose for themselves."

"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."

How did we squander this opportunity to unite the world for democracy and to commit to the 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 lost hundreds of soldiers.

"He’s (Obama) certainly an impressive figure, but he cannot just get the support of all of the black community because he’s black. We are no longer intoxicated by having the first black president. We had the first black secretary of state (Colin Powell) and the second black secretary of state (Condoleeza Rice) and they brought us the most wicked war in our lifetime. So you have to be more than our color. You have to be our kind."

"Remember how we got Roe vs. Wade in the first place. Some of us may have to roll up our sleeves, but it does not matter, we cannot let them roll back the clock. We must leave here united not only to fight judges that have questionable backgrounds in race, like Pickering, but [applause] judges like McConnell that are anti-women's right to choose. Let's stand together; let's work together. We are the real patriots, because we believe in freedom for all Americans. Thank you and God Bless you."