Al Sharpton Quotes

A few people with a clear agenda can make a big difference in government.

Different people were complaining, and I remember saying, 'Why don't we just demonstrate?' The Whitney was the first.

But picketing - picketing for or against something, and handing out literature - these are conspicuously formal actions. They have to be understood as indirect communication.

It seems the only way to gain attention today is to organize a march and protest something.

Any time someone carries a picket sign in front of the White House, that is the First Amendment in action.

There is no method by which an average citizen can effectively fight the White House in the media.

If 2,000 Tea Party activists descended on Wall Street, you would probably have an equal number of reporters there covering them.

I love being down at Occupy Wall Street. The sincerity, the youth involvement, the desire for better, is palpable and moving. There is true caring, sharing, and refreshingly naive hope.

When you show up at a rally supporting a bill, you are supporting the bill.

What if you threw a protest and no one showed up? The lack of angst and anger and emotion is a big positive.

I was a sports fan, but I also went to peace marches.

You name the demonstration; I was at it.

In the late afternoons and early evenings, the crowd is easily over 1 million. That many people simply can't fit in Independence Square. The demonstration spills in to the streets for several blocks.

I think the Occupy movement is absolutely fantastic; in my opinion, it's probably one of the most important people's movements of the 21st century and the 20th century. The trouble is that nobody really wants to support what they represent. They are too 'grassroots' for their own good.

I grew up in the sixties watching B.B. King and Tito Puente and Miles Davis and Coltrane, everybody, Marvin Gaye, Jimi. And at the same time, with my left eye I was watching Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa.

To pass a big idea in this town. You almost need social unrest

Young man, I have lived in this house many years and have seen the occupants of the White House across the square come and go, and nothing you minor officials or the occupant of that house can do will affect the history of the world for long.

We are on the threshold of a significant breakthrough, and the greatest weapon is the mass demonstration.

A protest is supposed to be public. How can you do it if you don't do it in front of an audience?

The Occupy movement is - it was a big surprise.

I get a little belligerent when not enough protesters show up at my appearances.

Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.

I think there's a weapon of cynicism to say, 'Protest doesn't work. Organizing doesn't work. Y'all are a bunch of hippies. You know, it doesn't do anything,' because, frankly, it's said out of fear, because it is a potent force for political change.

If people want to protest, to get out there and express themselves, as long as they do it peacefully, they should be encouraged to do so.

It is important to show up. Showing up at marches and rallies and town halls and protests.