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Sharpton: Rights fight is now
By BABITA PERSAUD, Times Staff Writer
Wearing a baggy pinstriped suit and broad black tie, he criticized President Bush and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and made reference to discrimination lawsuits filed against USF by black women basketball players. "On the great learned halls right there in Tampa," Sharpton said. "You've got lawsuits floating around this university. Don't act like (the fight for civil rights) is over." He questioned why Bush's war on terrorism had not yet resulted in the capture of the government's No. 1 suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks. "You've been looking for Osama bin Laden for the last four months. Yet, he's got more videos than Mary J. Blige," he said. He attacked Giuliani's record on civil rights, then added, sarcastically, "I give credit to Giuliani, he handled his job in the last eight weeks." The mostly 20-something audience cheered often. "He's a trip," said freshman architecture and engineering student Terrace Jones. Sharpton's appearance at the Special Events Center was part of the unversity's Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations. Civil rights isn't "back then," he said. "Sticking your head in the sand only exposes your behind to the world," he said. Sharpton has announced he is "exploring the idea of running" for the Democratic nomination for president. "Someone needs to bring to the nation leadership sensitive to our time," he said. He told reporters before the speech that he was not the same man he was 20 years ago. "I'm 47 now," he said. "I have two daughters who are teenagers. I have matured." It hasn't dimmed his flamboyance. He walked into a private reception at USF's Alumni Center with his cell phone pressed to his ear. "Hello. Wait a minute. Wait a minute," he said as a student held the door open for him. Sharpton was raised in Brooklyn, where he still lives. According to his 1996 autobiography Go and Tell Pharaoh, he gave his first sermon at age 4 and was ordained at 9. In his late 20s, he picketed a grocery chain because of unfair hiring practices, and he sat on the tracks at Grand Central Station during morning rush hour protesting the Metropolitan Transit Authority's lack of minority employees. He briefly managed rock legend James Brown, and his hairstyle remains a tribute to the entertainer. Sharpton is the president and founder of the National Action Network. Its mission is "to combat racial and civil rights violations." He has run unsuccessfully for mayor and senator in New York. He has led countless marches for black causes, including the infamous case of Tawana Brawley, who fabricated a story about rape and abduction by a white police officer in 1987. He chafes when it is mentioned, as it was Thursday night by a reporter. "That happened 15 years ago," Sharpton said. Sharpton visited Israel recently and met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He said that in post-9/11 times, to be a patriot means to adhere to civil rights. "The real patriot is the one who corrects the country."
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