THREE NIGHT SPEAKER & LECTURE SERIES

October 24, 2011 – 7pm

New Shiloh Baptist Church Family Life Center, 2100 North Monroe St.

Joe Madison

Michael Harrison

Gospelfest

Other Anniversary Celebrants

October 25, 2011 – 7pm

New Shiloh Baptist Church Family Life Center, 2100 North Monroe St.

Konan

Tim Watts

Bernice Simmons

A Special Message From Cathy Hughes

Other Anniversary Celebrants

October 26, 2011 – 7pm

Location, TBA

Rev. Al Sharpton

Tickets $15 per night includes lite fare.

(Tickets can be picked up at 1705 Whitehead Rd. Mon-Fri from 10am-4pm)

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Weptonomah Carter Memorial Garden Project, The Piney Woods School, Total Health Care Medical Center and the Mable Payne-Young Foundation – Larry Young’s own charity he started in honor of hos mother.

RELATED: LARRY YOUNG CELEBRATES 14 YRS WITH RADIO ONE

To check out the video in full click here

Roland Martin talks with Smokey Fontaine about President Obama’s appearance at Rev. Sharpton’s National Action Network anniversary celebration. Plus highlights of Rev. Sharpton and Sean Hannity’s debate.

WATCH:

I am in Akron, Ohio sitting at my laptop thinking about tomorrow’s events. Rev. Al Sharpton and I are in the state to rally for Kelley Williams-Bolar, the single mother who was jailed for sending her kids to a school outside their home district. In addition to going to jail for nine days, Ms. Williams-Bolar faces the possibility of never being able to teach in the state of Ohio for the rest of her life.

When we first started to talk about Kelley’s case, not many people knew what was happening.  But to my surprise, the news spread like wildfire, with Kelley getting international support from citizens around the world who were outraged at what was happening to this single mother of two.  ColorofChange.org and Change.org were able to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures in a matter of days, and the issue was immediately brought to the desk of Ohio Governor John Kasich. Kasich has agreed to have the parole board investigate and we continue to fight to protect Kelley and her family.

But the case is far bigger than Kelley Williams-Bolar, at least that’s not my primary reason for coming all this way. Every single day, my email inbox is filled with messages from citizens around the country who need help in very serious situations, and the truth is that I simply cannot help everyone.  So, I decided long ago that I would try to avoid engaging in individual crusades.   As someone who strongly believes in our nation’s quest for civil rights, it is my argument that our efforts are best utilized when pursuing matters that have the broadest socio-political implications.

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Kelley Williams-Bolar’s case affects millions of people because there are countless mothers who’ve risked the same persecution as Kelley to get their children access to a high-quality education.  Too many of our schools don’t have enough books, quality teachers or other resources necessary to prepare our children for a productive future.  Others came together to support Kelley because they could feel her pain.  Millions also seem to agree that we should not live in a nation where mothers must break the law in order to obtain something that should be a fundamental American right.

If Kelley’s children had been athletic like another Akron native by the name of LeBron James, they likely would have been allowed into the school without incident.  It is unfortunate that black children are worth something to others when they are presented as athletic, rather than intellectual commodities.  In fact, the idea that the labor of our youth has become such a powerful economic asset for the prison industrial complex has served to make our public school systems into feeders for America’s penitentiaries.

It’s time for this to change.  The denial of an adequate education for black and brown children across America is nothing less than a blatant violation of our human rights.  The Obama Administration should take the lead on this issue and have the necessary political courage to deal with this persistent and destructive problem.   Citizens who care about educational equality should do everything in their power to give our political leaders all the support they need to get the job done.  We shouldn’t settle for anything less, and that’s why we’re rallying in Ohio.

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We’re not telling Rush don’t say what he wants to say. Say it at home,” Sharpton said in December. “Don’t get on publicly regulated radio and television that are selectively given licenses and do that to offend someone because of their race or their gender.

Read The Whole Story

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Sharpton Faces Off With Republican On Abortion, Civil Rights

Al Sharpton Joins With NYPD To Get Guns Off Harlem Streets

New York — Former GOP Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a pro-life champion, locked horns with civil rights leader Al Sharpton over the issue of abortion in a heated debate Monday night.

The primary matter at hand was a racially-charged volley lobbed by Santorum at Obama over the president’s belief that women should be given a right to choose. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people,’” Santorum said of the Obama’s belief in abortion rights an interview last week.

Santorum, as he has proven in the past week, appeared happy to again dig in his heels and stand by this contention during the argument Monday.

“They were denied rights under the Constitution,” Santorum said, speaking of blacks before the passage of the 14th Amendment, before connecting that to his argument that abortion rights are inherently an infringement on the civil rights of fetuses.

Read more at HuffPo

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Women: PA. Abortion left us near dead, sterile

(HARLEM-WNYC)

Al Sharpton teamed up with the NYPD for a gun buy back on Harlem, New York City. WNYC reports:

A gun buyback held in Harlem by the New York Police Department and the Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network brought in more than 350 weapons. Saturday’s event at Saint Mark the Evangelist and Memorial Baptist Churches took place as Sharpton and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly held an anti-violence summit blocks away.

Officials say 185 revolvers, 122 semi-automatics, eight shotguns, eight rifles and 31 other firearms were exchanged for $200 bank cards, no questions asked.

Read The Whole Story

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Earlier this week, the New York Daily News shined a spotlight on Reverend Al Sharpton’s non-profit organization The National Action Network. Highlighting Sharpton’s executive salary, the story attempts to portray activist Sharpton as someone more committed to building his personal fortune than advancing his mission of social justice.

Instead, articles like these points to a growing pattern of unfair and exaggerated scrutiny of Black leaders.

What seems most newsworthy to the Daily News is that NAN paid Sharpton a salary of $250,000 last year, even as the organization was still paying off its tax debt. Despite their acknowledgment that Sharpton has been more generous than most, often donating his sizable speaking fees, and has forgone a salary for the past two years, the paper still led with the headline: “Tax Debt Doesn’t Stop Sharpton’s Salary.” [11/23/10].

So while the Daily News touted that Sharpton paid himself $250k while NAN is in the red, the undisputed facts are that Rev. Sharpton only received a net of $50k because the NY Daily News intentionally left out the fact that Rev. Sharpton had recently loaned almost his entire salary to NAN. Similar to what was done to Shirley Sherrod who became a sacrificial lamb when reckless charges were made against her by a blogger who posted a misleading and highly edited video of her and recklessly charged her with racism, Rev. Sharpton was disparaged by the Daily News who printed distorted and misleading information about his finances even after Rev. Sharpton went to meticulous extents to make sure the writer had all the facts. (Neither the writer or editor of the article were available for comment.)

A former presidential candidate, Al Sharpton has focused his work on securing civil rights for all Americans for the last three decades. His National Action Network has been at the forefront of these actions from anti police brutality efforts (such as Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell in NYC), partnering with the NYPD to buy back guns and decrease violence, touring the country with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Newt Gingrich to decrease the racial achievement gap, protesting military exercises in Vieques, to last summer’s Reclaim the Dream March on the 47th anniversary of The March on Washington. This work has enhanced our democracy.

Over the past few years, there has been increased attention given to CEO salaries within the non-profit sector.  The IRS, the entity responsible for regulating charities for the federal government, has increased their focus on CEO compensation to help uncover fraudulent non-profit activity.  They have even redesigned the tax return forms charities submit to them annually, in part, to provide greater transparency around non-profit compensation. Given this, Sharpton’s $250,000 salary award (which becomes $83,333 each year when averaged over 2008-2009, the years he didn’t collect one) becomes even more appropriate.

According to a recent study by Charity Navigator, the average CEO of an educational non-profit earns an average of $272,000 annually.  For a large charity with > $13.5 MM expenses, the annual compensation rises to more than $280,000.  High profile organizations, like Sharpton’s, also command far higher executive pay.  The CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society has a $503,000 base salary, the head of the NY Philharmonic $850,000. Conservative non-profit groups like The Brookings Institution pay $425,000, the Heritage Foundation $947,999 [source]. Given these statistics, it’s clear that significant salaries are warranted for leaders who are sought after for their ability to manage multi-million dollar institutions and are tasked with the huge goal of serving those who are less fortunate.  Reverend Al Sharpton is one of those leaders.

As the country struggles to survive the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it can’t do so without non-profits. The past few years have hit non-profit organizations across the US pretty hard. Earlier this fall, a survey of the top 400 non-profit charities [source] found that income was down in 2009 and even though half expected to do better in 2010, the funding levels remain down by almost $7 billion. These non-profits will not be able to close the funding gap and continue to be effective without great leadership. And these leaders from civil rights groups to aid groups have to be paid fairly.

In a climate of increasing racial division that has ironically come about since the election of President Barack Obama, the attack on Sharpton is part of a pattern of increased and unfair scrutiny of Black leaders. In the same article, the Daily News also reported on an unresolved tax bill by the Sharpton led civil rights organization as a new development, even though the taxes in question made headlines several years ago. At that time, Sharpton responded that he worked out a payment plan with the IRS, a point the Daily News story only acknowledges. The suggestion is that Black leadership is disproportionately corrupt. But these tactics have no place in civil society.

My mother and I have worked with Reverend Al Sharpton for over thirty years, fighting to bring human rights and economic empowerment to African-Americans across this country. He has dedicated his life to this cause. I call on all Americans, especially those in our media outlets, to resist attempts like these to fan the flames of racial division with the spread of misinformation, and instead, join together with us in our universal fight for justice and equality.

Alfred C. Liggins III is the CEO / President of Radio One, Inc and the CEO of Interactive One.  Interactive One is the sole owner of NewsOne.com

www.interactiveone.com

www.radio-one.com

www.nationalactionnetwork.net

Rev Al Sharpton on NewsOne.com

New York — While appearing on Ed Schultz Show on MSNBC, Al Sharpton was asked about Rush Limbaugh’s racist comments and he responded by saying that  Limbaugh should not be supported by federally regulated radio.

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They held a press conference together Friday.

Sharpton has been a longtime critic of the New York Police Department. But he says he’ll do all he can to help the NYPD stem gun violence. He says it’s important to stop gun violence in the black community.

Kelly says 73 percent of the city’s shooting victims are black.

Sharpton says he plans to promote the NYPD’s Gun Stop program. The program offers a reward to anyone who turns in a weapon — no questions asked.

Shootings in the nation’s largest city are up this year. There have been 1,590 victims of gun violence reported, about 60 more than through the same time last year.