Al Sharpton in Democratic National Convention speeches
On Civil Rights:
Reparations based on Lincoln's promise of 40 acres & a mule
Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? [Bush says] the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule. That's where the
argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres. We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.
It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats.
Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard,
the reason we took Florida so seriously, is that our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs. This vote is sacred to us. This vote can't be bargained away. This vote can't be given away. Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.
Source: Speech to the Democratic National Convention
On War & Peace:
Bush misled us on Iraq
We went from unprecedented international support and solidarity on September 12, 2001, to hostility and hatred as we stand here tonight. We can't survive in the world by ourselves. How did we squander this opportunity to unite the world for democracy
and to commit to a global fight against hunger and disease? We did it with a go-it-alone foreign policy based on flawed intelligence. We were told that we were going to Iraq because there were weapons of mass destruction. We've lost hundreds of soldiers.
We've spent $200 billion dollars at a time when we had record state deficits. And when it became clear that there were no weapons, they changed the premise for the war and said: No, we went because of other reasons.
If I told you tonight, "Let's leave the FleetCenter, we're in danger," and when you get outside, you ask me, Reverend Al, "What is the danger?" and I say, "It don't matter. We just needed some fresh air," I have misled you and we were misled.
Source: Speech to the Democratic National Convention
On Civil Rights:
Bush might reverse the gains of civil and women rights
This year we celebrated the anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education. The Supreme Court has voted five to four on critical issues of women's rights and civil rights. It is frightening to think that the gains of civil and women rights and those
movements in the last century could be reversed if this administration is in the White House in these next four years. I suggest to you tonight that if Bush had selected the court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school.
Source: Primetime speech to the Democratic National Convention
On Civil Rights:
We cannot treat people of different cultures as inferior
Whether People come from Mexico, Haiti or Canada, there must be one set of rules for everybody. We cannot welcome those to come and then try and act as though any culture will not be respected or treated inferior.
We cannot look at the Latino community and preach "one language." No one gave them an English test before they sent them to Iraq to fight for America.
Source: Primetime speech to the Democratic National Convention
On Civil Rights:
People in Baghdad can vote but people in DC can't
The promise of America is that every citizen vote is counted and protected, and election schemes do not decide the election.
It, to me, is a glaring contradiction that we would fight, and rightfully so, to get the right to vote for the people in the capital of Iraq in Baghdad, but still don't give the federal right to vote for the people in the capital of the US.
Source: Primetime speech to the Democratic National Convention
On Principles & Values:
Living up to the promise of America is not a partisan issue
The promise of America says we will guarantee quality education for all children and not spend more money on metal detectors than computers in our schools. The promise of America guarantees health care for all of its citizens and doesn't force seniors to
go to Canada to buy prescription drugs they can't afford here at home. The promise of America provides that those who work in our health care system can afford to be hospitalized in the very beds they clean up every day.
The promise of America is that government does not seek to regulate your behavior in the bedroom, but to guarantee your right to provide food in the kitchen. The promise of America that we stand for human rights, whether it's fighting against slavery
in the Sudan; AIDS in Lesotho; or police misconduct in this country. The promise of America is one immigration policy for all who seek to enter our shores.
Source: Primetime speech to the Democratic National Convention
On Principles & Values:
Family values are not just car garages and a retirement plan
Family values are not just those with two-car garages and a retirement plan. Retirement plans are good. But family values also are those who had to make nothing stretch into something happening, who had to make ends meet. I was raised by a single mother
who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table. But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where
you start, but where you're going. That's family values. And I wanted somebody in my community - I wanted to show that example. As I ran for president, I hoped that one child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across the stage
with governors and senators and know they didn't have to be a drug dealer, they didn't have to be a hoodlum, they didn't have to be a gangster, they could stand up from a broken home, on welfare, and they could run for president of the United States.
Source: Primetime speech to the Democratic National Convention
On War & Peace:
The premise for the Iraqi war was changed after our losses
How did we squander the opportunity to unite the world for democracy & to commit to a global fight against hunger & disease? We did it with a go-it-alone foreign policy based on flawed intelligence. We were told there were weapons of mass destruction.
We've lost hundreds of soldiers. We've spent $200 billion dollars at a time when we had record state deficits. And when it became clear that there were no weapons, they changed the premise for the war and said: No, we went because of other reasons.
Source: Primetime speech to the Democratic National Convention