Al Sharpton Quotes

If we're going to change the laws, let's change them in ways which makes it easier to catch criminals, and yet at the same time protect the Second Amendment rights of our law-abiding citizens.

When I turned 18, was the first time that I really started concentrating on politics. And I started doing so because I realized that in order to really create and generate change, it has to come from changing laws... so I started campaigning for Norman Lear's foundation, which was Declare Yourself.

We must stand our ground to ensure that our laws reduce violence and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they prevent.

Every law out there is to protect the safety of every individual, regardless of their age and regardless of their race. And so, if those laws are not working, then we need to work to change them.

It is tragic that people who are incarcerated are unable to vote. They are probably the most important voices to listen to because they can tell us what we need to change.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

It was a privilege to serve as the assistant attorney general for civil rights, a role that allowed me to enforce the Civil Rights Act and help make its promise a reality.

My parents both were doing the Civil Rights Movement, were very involved with the civil rights to Congress. And my friends' parents were as well.

Ultimately, you change the culture in Washington only one way, and it's one election at a time, with the character of the people you send.

Father had notions about manhood suffrage, public schools, the education and the elevation of the masses, and the gradual emancipation of the slaves, that did not suit the uncompromising views of people in places like Richmond.

[Referring to gun control:] You've got to protect your legitimate sportsman and hunter, but by God, you've got to protect your police officers too.

Let us revise our views and work from the premise that all laws should be for the welfare of society as a whole and not directed at the punishment of sins.

George Minot [a Concord neighbor] thinks that it is of no use balloting, for it will not stay, but what you do with the gun will stay so.

You change laws by changing lawmakers.

The right to vote with no ifs, ands, or buts, that's the key. When the Negroes get that, they'll have every politician, north and south, east and west, kissing their ass, begging for their support.

In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people's representatives.

The goal in the end is not to win elections. The goal is to change society.

It is unquestionably the duty of the industrial classes, by means of the ballot, to speedily take the Government into their own hands, but in doing so to do justice to all.

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at the point of a bayonet, if necessary.

The New Deal ultimately undermined Jim Crow’s prospects. The very legislation embraced by Southern segregationists created at first mere chinks, then whole openings for social change that were grasped by an incipient, soon powerful, movement for equal rights for Blacks.

If people don't vote, everything stays the same. You can protest until the sky turns yellow or the moon turns blue, and it's not going to change anything if you don't vote.

Too many people fought too hard to make sure all citizens of all colors, races, ethnicities, genders, and abilities can vote to think that not voting somehow sends a message.

I want to make sure we have elected people constantly looking at helping the African-American community.

There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality.

There's a larger conversation we need to have about the role of police officers, their relationship to the people as enemy or executioner, when they're not supposed to be either.