Brooklyn Ron

Confessions of a Black Yalie Elder

Black History, Alive: Al Sharpton

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By Ron Howell, author of “King Al: How Sharpton Took the Throne” (Fordham University Press, 2021)

In the long and painful history of Black people in America, one man -- still among us -- stands out for boldness and drama in rising to the top against all expectations.

Renowned Black theologian/historian Dr. Cornel West put it this way:

“Brother (Al) Sharpton is a unique figure in American history, a figure who brings together so many different elements . . . He has unbelievable energy and vitality and consistency in regard to being there at all the critical times,” told me in an interview for my recent book "King Al: How Sharpton Took the Throne."

“Critical times" refers to life and death moments, which for Black Americans has extended from centuries of slavery into the present.

Using his popular MSNBC PoliticsNation show as a podium over the past decade, Sharpton has displayed an association with “critical times” that has identified him for four decades: Race-related killings of Blacks.

On the evening of Feb. 5 -- the first week of Black History Month -- Sharpton featured Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, father and mother respectively of the late Trayvon Martin.

That was poetic.

It was during Black History Month one decade ago, on Feb. 26, 2012, that a white Latino named George Zimmerman took advantage of Florida's Stand Your Ground law and killed 17-year-old Trayvon. Zimmerman was a civilian watchman for his gated community in Sanford, Fl., and Martin was walking to the nearby home of relatives. Zimmerman stopped and questioned Trayvon, who had no criminal record and was unarmed, and then tussled with him and shot him. Zimmerman was acquitted in what most Blacks considered a cold-blooded murder. (The Stand Your Ground law, which has been called racist by many, says a person can use deadly force against another when feeling threatened.)

The Trayvon Martin killing is generally acknowledged as the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Sharpton was there, front and center, for the protests that displayed outrage at what happened to Trayvon. It was during that time that Sharpton began partnering with Ben Crump, the Florida lawyer that Sharpton soon began calling the Attorney General for Black America. (It should be pointed out, however, that while an attorney general is tasked with prosecuting cases, Crump has been heavily involved in civil suits seeking money damages for offenses.)

Over the ten years since Trayvon Martin’s death, Crump has been side by side with Sharpton, as Sharpton has led demonstrations and given eulogies following racially charged killings of numerous other Blacks.

[caption: AP photo of Sharptron, Crump, and the parents of Trayvon Martin.]

Perhaps the crisis that came to define Black mass protesting was the killing of George Floyd, captured on video for the world to see. On May 25, 2020, Floyd lay on a street in Minneapolis as white police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd's neck, Floyd pleading for help, calling out his dead mother's name, saying he couldn't breathe, all as Chauvin stared dismissively at the camera filming him. Millions have called it a modern-day lynching.

After Floyd's death, Sharpton gave eulogies for Floyd around the country. With his seemingly natural eloquence -- nourished by early years as the "boy preacher" at his family’s Washington Temple Church of God in Christ in Central Brooklyn -- he in effect resurrected George Floyd, who will live long in the minds of justice seekers in America.

Sharpton's "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" March on Washington in August of 2020 drew tens of thousands of mask-wearing protesters to the Lincoln Memorial.

[caption: AP photo of Sharpton at "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" rally, Aug. 2020.]

It could reasonably be said that Sharpton, more than anyone else, was responsible for the conviction last year of Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd and of Chauvin's sentence of two decades in prison. That was like the fulfillment of a dream for many injustice-weary Blacks.

And that dream was made all the more real on Feb. 22, when a federal jury found that three white men guilty of a hate crime when they murdered Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who had been jogging through their Georgia neighborhood.

Last year Sharpton had led protests outside the courthouse where the three men had been on trial on state charges; and his televised denunciations clearly raised the PR stakes for the white prosecutor and judge in that case, which had also ended with convictions.

“No one would have thought, going back to the ’80s, that he (Sharpton) would ascend to the heights where he is today,” scholar/theologian West told me.

----- ----- -----

Oh the ‘80s.

Back then, the biggest weight keeping Sharpton from the heights where he is today (apart from his torso, which was double the size it is today) was the white press, especially the New York City tabloids. I know a bit about this because I was myself a tabloid scribe, albeit a Black one, having reported for Newsday (which then was published in New York City and not just Long Island as now).

The 1980s controversy that brought me to Al Sharpton was the 1988 blockbuster New York Newsday story revealing he had been working as an informant with the FBI. I was with the foreign desk of Newsday at the time. In 1987 I had gone to Cuba and interviewed Assata Shakur, previously known as Joanne Chesimard, who had been convicted in the 1973 killing of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster. In 1979 she escaped from prison and soon was at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Her whereabouts were unknown until I interviewed her in Cuba and wrote a Newsday story “On the Run with Assata Shakur.”

After I returned to New York -- following the revelations of Sharpton’s work with the FBI – some associates of Shakur reached out to me and said Sharpton had suspiciously approached them in the early 1980s trying to learn Shakur’s whereabouts. They asserted their belief that Sharpton was trying to get that information and turn it over to the feds. Sharpton denied to me that he was trying to locate and turn over Shakur, but some of those Black “revolutionaries” remain untrusting of Sharpton to this day.

In the minds of many, it was not the FBI story, but rather the Tawana Brawley story, that stood out as Sharpton’s biggest controversy of the 1980s.

Brawley, then 15 years old, was found in a trash bag in near her home in Wappingers Falls, New York. Feces covered her body. Racist scribblings were said to have been scribbled on her body. The Brawley family maintained a group of white men had assaulted her.

Turning up the volume of protests to an ear-burning level was Al Sharpton. He showed a quick wit, a born ability to extemporize, an ease with spouted alliterations, and a damn-you toughness as he aimed verbal bullets at asserted malfeasors. Partnering with Black attorneys Alton Maddox and C. Vernon Mason, Sharpton claimed there was evidence that a cult of white racist law enforcement officers had carried out the attack on Tawana Brawley.

But later investigative reporting by Newsday columnist/editor Les Payne, now deceased, showed that Tawana Brawley had made up the assertion of kidnapping and rape because she believed her stepfather, Ralph King, who had previously served in jail for the murder of his former significant other, would have been angry with her for returning home so late.

[caption: AP photo of Sharpton with Tawana Brawley in 1988.]

Sharpton, Maddox and Mason in 1998 were ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for having defamed one of the alleged white assaulters. That was former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones.

Over the coming months, and even years, Sharpton has hemmed and hawed when asked to explain his behavior during that time. (The incident is outlined in the “King Al”, Chapter 2, “Les Payne Sounds the Death Knell on the Tawana Brawley Story.”

Sharpton was in those days a treasure for white newspaper photographers, with his slicked-up James Brown pompadour and don’t-give-a-damn jogging suits around his then 300-pound frame.

But even back then, Sharpton had widespread Black support as he led protests against fatal attacks on Black men by police or white civilian racists.

There was the 1986 killing of Michael Griffith, the 23-year-old Black man who was who was killed in a racially motivated attack in the Howard Beach section of Queens. Griffith was trying to flee and was run over and killed by a car on the nearby highway.

There was the 1989 killing of Yusuf Hawkins, 16, who was in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn with his brother, when a gang of whites went after them with baseball bats and one of the whites pulled out a handgun and shot Yusuf, killing him.

Sharpton had organized one protest march after another, taking busloads of Blacks and sympathizers to Bensonhurst for rallies. At a protest on Jan. 12, 1991, a neighborhood resident, Michael Riccardi, stabbed Sharpton in the stomach and was convicted and then sentenced to five to 15 years in prison. He was released in 2003.

For Sharpton, 1991 was life-altering in another way. It was the year he started the National Action Network, which over the next three decades would become his source of local and national political power and influence. And one guy in particular now stands out among those there during the 1990s, supporting NAN’s asserted fights for racial fairness in policing. That was the politic officer turned politician named Eric Adams.

[caption: AP photo of Sharpton being wheeled by hospital staff after his 1991 stabbing.]

Last Nov. 2, at Carnegie Hall, Sharpton and scores of powerful politicians and activists from New City, New York State and the country celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of NAN. (They also feted Sharpton’s 67^th birthday.) Vice President Kamala Harris gave the opening address. Showing up as a special guest was Eric Adams, who was greeted with enthusiasm. It transpired on the very evening of the election that Adams won, making him New York City’s first Black mayor since the late David Dinkins.

Many 1980s tabloid reporters, living and deceased, were surely saying to themselves, “Can you friggin’ believe this?

----- ----- -----

Indeed, many New Yorkers, not just old-time reporters, were astounded at the left trajectory of the Rev. Al Sharpton. And a good number of one-time naysayers became Sharpton converts.

“There’s no Black in America now who’s more significant than he is. . . Some question things he’s done in the past, but those are mistakes that so many, the best and most well intentioned, make; and the important thing is keeping our character sincere and being upright. He stood next to Barack Obama during Obama’s time in office and he [Sharpton] rose from the ground levels of Brooklyn to the highest seats in the United States of America.”

Those were the words of one of Black Brooklyn political pioneers, Waldaba Stewart, who was elected to the New York State Senate in 1968 and then became a professor at Medgar Evers College. Stewart saw and heard Sharpton fist-pumping and speechifying at events in Central Brooklyn half a century ago, when Sharpton was a teenager. Stewart was skeptical then, but Sharpton in recent years won him over.

Stewart spoke to me in 2020 as I was writing book “King Al.” He died on New Year’s Day of this year, at the age of 85.

***

How Peter Eisner, Les Payne and Cuba Led to the Writing of 'King Al: How Sharpton Took the Throne'

Peter Eisner, former Newsday foreign editor

[photo credit: Musha Salinas Eisner]

Former Newsday foreign editor Peter Eisner reveals a truth about "King Al: How Sharpton Took the Throne."

While the title is fully about Sharpton, the book is largely about late twentieth-century New York newspapers.

It was that platform, especially the tabloid versions, that turned Sharpton into the controversial media figure he was -- and the wealthy, influential cable news host he is today.

Back in the early-mid-1980s, when Peter was AP's editor in Mexico City, he hired me an hour after I had knocked on his door, unannounced, seeking a job.

As fate would have it, we both later were hired at Newsday, where hotshot editor Les Payne became a mentor and booster to us both. (Our beloved Les Payne this year was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Malcolm X, "The Dead are Arising," written with his daughter Tamara Payne.) Chapter 2 of King Al is devoted to Les: "Les Payne Sounds the Death Knell on the Tawana Brawley Story."

Had there been no Peter Eisner (and Les Payne), I would not have had the chance to spend months in Cuba as a correspondent for Newsday; and I would not have become the first reporter to interview Assata Shakur (wanted by the FBI in the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper) and reveal she was living in Cuba under a grant of asylum from Fidel Castro.

That story led me to write another piece. It cited U.S.-based Black radicals who believed Sharpton had been trying to get them to reveal what they knew about Assata, with the intention of informing the FBI of her whereabouts.

In my book, Sharpton denies he was trying to do that. But the book also quotes those who maintain, to this day, he was trying to do just that.

Had there been no Peter Eisner and his beloved Les Payne in my life, there would be no "King Al."

Peter emailed this photo to me, saying he was deeply touched by the reflections in the book.

"I went to Politics and Prose (in D.C.) and bought the book . . . I had known about parts of the book that you shared with me, but had no idea of what you would write about me, you and Les (Payne)... It was a great run for the three of us and beyond. I'm very proud of what we did, and who we were and are, and hope that I can continue to serve the legacy."

Fordham University Press asked me to inform that it's giving holiday discounts. I was told a buyer can enter code - GIFT2021 - at checkout.

"The Dead are Arising," by Les Payne and Tamara Payne.

Nikole Hannah-Jones: Ida B. Wells of Journalism Education

I suspected the inner turmoil was intense, but Nikole Hannah-Jones here lays bare what she went through this year. Her alma mater, the University of North Carolina, caused her great pain. You can all but see suffused tears in some of her words. But writing is fighting, and Nikole hopefully is finding peace. The long and short is that the Trustees of UNC, embarrassed at the association with racist rightwingers, finally offered her tenure. But Nikole just could not bring herself to say, Ok, all forgiven. So with pride and head high she’s going to teach at Howard, with strong financial backing from foundations committed to racial justice in journalism.

 

Read it here:

 

The Racism Steeped in Police Unions

I just had a conversation with a friend who disagreed when I said the biggest problem in reforming policing is the police unions. Racism in defending the "rights" of police officers' is steeped in the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

In 1966, New York City Mayor Lindsay proposed adding four civilians to the board investigating police abuses. PBA president John J. Cassese's response was, "[Y]ou won’t satisfy these people until you get all Negroes and Puerto Ricans on the board and every policeman who goes in front of it is found guilty.”

I remember being a young teenager in the Kings Plaza area back then, shopping with my mother. Members of the PBA -- in uniform -- were at a bus stop asking Brooklynites for signatures on petitions opposing Lindsay's plan to add the civilians. The cops walked by me and my mother, treating us as invisible as they approached all the white people standing near us.

In a city like New York, where racial fairness is a credible rallying call, the PBA steadily threw its support behind Donald J. Trump, as Trump dog-whistled praises to his white supremacist followers.

Yes, today we have a Civilian Complaint Review Board, but it never accomplished anything close to what Minneapolis teenager Darnella Frazier did last year, when she aimed her camera and provided evidence that led to the arrest, conviction and sentencing of Derek Chauvin, for the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd.

Note: Linked here is a piece from the Gotham Center for New York City History, by Chris Hayes (an historian in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University in New Brunswick).

 

Reelect Assembly Member Diana Richardson on Tuesday, June 23rd!!

 

Dear colleagues,   Assemblywoman Diana Richardson has ably represented you and the 43rd Assembly district and CUNY. Over the past year she has advocated for new taxes on the wealthy to make certain they pay their fair share in financing public services. In addition, Assemblywoman Richardson has been on legislator phone calls with PSC leaders and signed onto letters advocating for significantly greater NYS funding for CUNY. Her independence and character are breaths of fresh air in Albany.   As a result of both her independence and progressive politics she deserves your support in this year's Democratic primary. We therefore urge you to get out and vote on Tuesday,  June 23rd for Assemblywoman Diane Richardson. Every day she is in Albany, the Assemblywoman has fought for both her district's needs and investment in essential public services like CUNY. You can stand in solidarity with your colleagues and students by pulling the lever for Assemblywoman Diane Richardson.   In solidarity, Mike Fabricant, Legislative Representative of the PSC

On CNN Town Hall, Deval Patrick Explains His Long, Deep, Family-Like Relationship with Barack Obama, Reveals the Personal Impulses for All He's Done Professionally, and Publicly Embraces His Loving Wife Diane, Who's Often Called the New Michelle Obama

Diane Patrick - aka Brooklyn Diane, aka Queens Diane - Says Deval Patrick May Take America by Surprise, Just as He Took Mass. by Surprise 14 Years Ago

"When Deval gets in front of people, anything can happen."

 

Listen to Diane speaking from the heart on Boston's public radio station. (Note: From the heart seems to be the only way she know how to speak.)

 

Diane Patrick told Boston Public Radio Thursday she thinks that 2020 could be a lot like 2006.

 

In 2006 her husband, now formerMassachusetts governor Deval Patrick, was a longshot candidate for that seat. So much so, she said, that when he joined the race the Boston Herald ran a headline asking “Deval Who?”

 

He went on to win the election with 55 percent of the vote, and served two terms as governor. Now, she said he can do that again.

 

“I think when Deval gets in front of people anything can happen,” Diane Patrick said. “I think if we had gotten in when we were expecting to I think this would be a whole different conversation because he would’ve had the opportunity.

 

“He feels what he feels, and what he feels is a deep empathy for every person he comes across, and that comes across so well,” she continued. “It’s not b.s. What you see is what you get, and we need to [get him] in front of others.”

Does The NY Times Have Color Double Standards When It Comes to Home Delivery?

#nytimes why is it in Central Brooklyn, where I live, Times is delivered as late as 8 or 9 am? I have friends in Marine Park, Bklyn, and Manhattan who get papers at 5 am. Is it just a fact that largely black/brown neighborhoods are treated differently? Thinking of cancelling

— RonHowellBrooklynRon (@newbrooklyn) February 1, 2020

It’s becoming common wisdom: Colorado Springs Gazette says Obama strongly prefers Deval Patrick over Joe Biden

[photo: WashingtonExaminer.com]

Gazette article: “Obama has feigned neutrality in the primary contest, but his fingerprints are all over it. When his longtime friend Deval Patrick jumped into the fray in November, it was seen as a signal of Obamaworld’s dissatisfaction with the state of the race. Contra Biden, Obama had actively pushed Patrick to run for president as early as 2017. As Edward-Isaac Dovere recounted in the Atlantic, Patrick’s campaign, and especially his decision to enter the race so late, were held by those in the know as ‘the clearest sign yet of how much anxiety there is among Obama’s inner circle about Biden’s campaign.’”

https://gazette.com/opinion/perspective-obama-s-biden-betrayal/article_ea681d4e-3df9-11ea-97b5-5f8240701835.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

 

Examiner article (2019) - ‘Deval Patrick 2020 run signals Obama doubts about Biden’:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/sends-a-message-deval-patrick-2020-run-signals-obama-doubts-about-biden