Rev. Al Sharpton: What is Africa to Me?

Rev. Al Sharpton

Download Rev. Al Sharpton: What is Africa to Me? (9:10)

Reverend Al Sharpton is the President and founder of the National Action Network (NAN), and one of America’s most-renowned civil rights leaders.

Born on October 3, 1954, in Brooklyn, NY, Sharpton began his ministry at the age of four. The same year, he preached his first sermon at Washington Temple Church of God & Christ in Brooklyn. Five years later, the Washington Temple Church’s legendary Bishop F. D. Washington licensed his protégé to be a minister in his denomination. Sharpton’s civil-rights career began almost as early. At age 13, Reverends Jesse Jackson and William Jones appointed Sharpton Youth Director of New York’s SCLC Operation Breadbasket—an organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At 16, Sharpton founded the National Youth Movement Inc. which organized young people around the country to push for increased voter registration, cultural awareness and job training programs.

As the head of National Action Network, a civil rights organization that currently has over 45 chapters and affiliates throughout the nation, Sharpton has been applauded by both supporters and opponents for challenging the American political establishment to include all people in the dialogue, regardless of race, gender, class or beliefs.