Al Sharpton Biography

Reverend Al Sharpton is a fiery orator and activist from New York City who became famous in the 1980s for his protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

Since 2011 he has hosted the TV talk show PoliticsNation on MSNBC.

As a child, Sharpton was ordained as a minister and was known as the “boy wonder” preacher of the Washington Temple Church of God.

Part activist and part entertainer, he founded the National Youth Movement right out of high school, worked as a tour manager for singer James Brown and toured with gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

In the 1970s and ’80s, he worked with boxing promoter Don King before becoming well-known to New Yorkers as a guy who always seemed to be in the middle of hot-button racial issues.

Sharpton’s reputation took a blow in 1987, when he was the spokesman for Tawana Bradley, an African-American teenager who accused a group of white men of rape — a charge a grand jury deemed a hoax.

Sharpton refashioned himself as a more mature spokesman for the downtrodden and ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States in 2004.

Since then he’s remained active in New York political scandals and had a career as a political commentator on television.