The Rev. Al Sharpton, In Six True-False Statements
Along the way, his career has given rise to a host of rumors, falsehoods and truths both unexpected and unflattering to Sharpton. In an interview with NPR, Sharpton addressed several of the more enduring facts and fictions. Here are his positions on some of the best-known aspects of his life:
Was Sharpton James Brown's Tour Manager?
That's fiction, Sharpton says. It is true that Sharpton had a close relationship with the legendary singer and revered him as father figure. Brown, who died in 2006, had filled the void created in Sharpton's life when his father abandoned the family when he was a boy.
Sharpton and Brown met in 1973 following the death of the singer's 16-year-old son, Teddy, in New York. Teddy had moved there from Georgia and joined a youth outreach organization run by Sharpton, who also was 16. After Teddy died in a car accident, Brown performed a memorial concert in New York and donated the proceeds to Sharpton's fledgling organization.
Upon learning about Sharpton's family situation, Brown began to mentor the young preacher. From Sharpton's late teens to his mid-20s, he often toured with Brown.
"[But] I never was his road manager," Sharpton says. "I was still just a kid. He would tell me, 'I don't want you in entertainment.' "
To Brown, Sharpton owes much: funding for his activism; Sharpton's former wife, who was a backup singer for Brown when they met; lessons in showmanship and self-promotion; and, of course, Sharpton's hairstyle (Brown's idea, Sharpton says).
Does He Really Have Ties To Sen. Strom Thurmond?
That's a fact. Sharpton and the late longtime South Carolina senator aren't blood relatives, but the truth is just as provocative. Two of the most prominent figures in the 20th century racial divide — one a civil rights leader, the other an icon of segregationists — trace their ancestries to the same slave plantation in South Carolina.
Sharpton's paternal great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, had been a slave owned by Julia Thurmond Sharpton, a first cousin, twice removed of Strom Thurmond, according to genealogists' research.
"It was probably the most shocking thing in my life," Sharpton has said of the discovery.
Sharpton says he has visited the plantation in Edgefield, S.C., on Sharpton Road.
"In the story of the Thurmonds and the Sharptons is the story of the shame and the glory of America," Sharpton said at a 2007 news conference about the findings.
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