Press Releases

Statement by Reverend Al Sharpton on the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others at a public meeting in Arizona

New York, NY (Sunday, January 3, 2011) Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network (NAN) and one of the country’s foremost leaders for civil rights kicked off 2011 by entering into an agreement with Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Karen Hunter to write an in-depth inside look at Reverend Sharpton’s life and the state of the country for the first decade of the 21st century.   

The working title of the book will be: “Mountain Highs and Valley Lows” by Al Sharpton and will give the inside story of how he felt standing at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave when Barack Obama won the Presidency, his meeting with President Obama and former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, to the lows of preaching the funerals and dealing with the background infighting around the deaths of James Brown and Michael Jackson, as well as the ending of his own 23-year marriage and the challenges of being single at midlife. Details will be formally announced on January 11th when Hunter and Sharpton launch the project.

Secondly, in January, Rev. Sharpton will formally announce a $20 million dollar capital drive to build a permanent House of Justice headquarters and activism library and resource center in Harlem, New York. The House of Justice has been the name of NAN’s headquarters since 1996 and it is Rev. Sharpton’s goals to build a structure that will house a public auditorium for rallies, and to build an archives to have as an open library of activism featuring material from the Abolitionist Age to the “No Justice No Peace” movement of the 21st Century. It will also be a resource center to train activists on how to organize in urban and suburban communities in an array of challenges in the 21st century including areas of social justice, education equality, immigration, and women’s, gay and lesbian rights.

“Three years ago, NAN was challenged financially with outstanding taxes and overwhelming debt.  We have in the last 2 years been able to significantly reduce those liabilities, positioned ourselves to possibly resolved all tax issues in the first quarter of the new year and bring great stability to the organization,” said Rev. Sharpton. He added, “We will be working to secured commitments for the $20 million dollar capital drive which will make it an achievable and realistic goal.”  Rev. Sharpton is also handling his own personal tax liabilities, many of which were caused by his financial support of NAN when it couldn’t support itself.. Rev. Sharpton will bring his own liabilities up to date and satisfy current tax liens that must be filed until all years are brought current.  Rev. Sharpton said “I believe that public figures must pay their bills.  Now that we have managed NAN financially, the organization will be in position to repay me monies l loaned the organizations over the years which will make it possible to resolve my own personnel business obligations.”