haha white America? I take that as racist. Tell Al to pay his taxes.
You are seriously kidding right?
Al and Jessy built the country I enjoy living in? baaaaaaaaahaaahaa that's as good as Obama saying Muslims built America.
Al Sharpton's contributions to "building America." To save time, I'm compiling this ENTIRELY of wikipedia. Why? To prove that one google search of the guys name and an ability to dismiss what is said about him on Fox News and talk radio can completely change your opinion on one of the most important people in American history.
-Led marches in the 80's and served as pro bono legal council to get white rapists and murderers of black people on trial and eventually convicted (
Bernhard Goetz, Howard Beach AKA Jon Lester, Scott Kern, Jason LaDone, Michael Pirone, Michael Ricardi, Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Ed McMellon, Kenneth Boss and at least dozens more I don't know about)
-Founded the national action network and led it for 20 years from 1985 to 2003. The Network has donated, raised, and lobbied hundreds of millions to groups fighting poverty and black unemployment across the United States. Sharpton's organization has put countless Americans to work, gotten countless Americans to college when they could not afford it, and propped up countless small businesses in ghettos to try and improve the living status of black americans everywhere.
-Ended violent riots and transformed them into peaceful marches in numerous cases including Navy-Viques in Brooklyn and in Crown Heights, also in Brooklyn, and for Ousmane Zongo in Manhattan.
-Fought a legal battle for two years and even went to prison himself in an attempt to file charges against police officers who murdered and raped a black girl in New York City.
-Has been among the most influential baptist preachers in American history.
Jesse Jackson:
-Personally recruited Martin Luther King to join the Southern Christian Leadership Council. In doing so, he was largely responsible for healing the youth vs church schism which was a key piece in organizing most movement efforts in the 60's and 70's.
-Founded the SCLC economic council AKA operation Breadbasket, which propelled thousands of black owned small businesses. The key method of suppression other than segregation in the south at the time was limiting a black man's ability to acquire wealth. Jackson's efforts hit supremacists harder than any march ever could. Remember that Sharpton did the same in the 80's and 90's.
-Managed the "poor people's crusade" and formed the first Washington DC "tent-city" in 1968 despite his pupil and best friend MLK being assassinated just weeks earlier. The two missions fed and employed homeless people of all races for months and changed thousands of lives.
-Organized the Chicago Black Expo, a gathering of influential black economic and political powers to influence the US government to address issues that mattered to African Americans at the time. While he handed off the role eventually, the Black Expo still exists 33 years later and is centered on fighting poverty and police violence.
-Founded the national youth movement (alongside Al Sharpton). The NYM, to this day, has put more funding into removing drug presence and gang violence from black living spaces than any private fund in the history of the United STates.
-Spent 23 years serving as a lawyer fighting cases such as those involved in operation PUSH to work with major American corporations such as Ford and Wal-Mart, as well as the US Departments of Labor and Education, to reward institutions who hired or promoted African Americans. At the inception of PUSH, African American unemployment was near 60%.
-Served as a significant diplomat on behalf of the United States. Jackson convinced Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic to release hostages in the Kosovo War, while also representing America and the UK in a trip where he convinced Sadam Hussein to release more than twenty American and British hostages who had been condemned to death as "human shields".
-Prior to the election of Barack Obama, Jackson was the closest black man every to being elected president. His campaign receiving large national support by people of all races was one of the key developments in political liberation of black people in the 20th century.
-Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work fighting poverty and police violence. The PMF is the highest non military recognition in the United States
-In 2005, polls agreed that Jesse Jackson was the most influential African American alive.
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I beg you to reconsider what you think of these two men. They are phenomenal human beings and two of the most important men in American history. They built America because black America is a part of America, just as white America is. The things they have accomplished will trump what you or I will ever do by magnitudes of magnitudes. To label them as racial instigators is not just racist, ignorant, and ridiculous. It shows neglect of black history and the importance of people of all races in the United States. If you believe that Elvis is an important cultural figure for his role as the first white rock and roll sensation, yet you don't recognize Chuck Berry, or if you recognize George Washington but not Jesse Jackson, then you are cherrypicking American history to make America a white nation when in fact it is a diverse nation which has been built by all kinds of people. When Barack Obama says that Muslims help build America, he is right. Muslims are a piece of American society and they have had their contributions just like christians, atheists, jews and all others.