Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
The GrioAwards is where we honor people who are critical to our community, so it makes sense to bestow the Justice Icon Award on the Rev. Al Sharpton. The man has been fighting on behalf of Black people for five decades.
In his acceptance speech at theGrioAwards, he explained how civil rights activists like him have opened doors for so many others. “Some of us had to pay a price for your resume to even be read,” he said. “Some of us had to take nights in jail or licks upside the head or be shut out of boardrooms like Byron, so you could walk down the red carpet and act like you got there by yourself,” said Sharpton, referring to Allen, the founder, chairman and CEO of theGrio parent company, Allen Media Group.
Without a doubt, we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. Black people today have more freedom because of the battles our civil rights era predecessors fought and the sacrifices they made. Nowadays we have possibilities that they could not have imagined because we stand on the shoulders of everyone who fought on behalf of Black people. We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams precisely because of the work they did.
Sharpton seems to have been in the struggle forever. Longtime New Yorkers remember how, in the 1990s, he was always ready to stand up for Black people who were mistreated or killed by police or a wild mob of white men. He was a telegenic activist, one who understood that bringing media attention to Black victims was critical to putting pressure on white institutions and getting justice. Some people misunderstood him and thought of him as someone who chased the cameras, but in so many cases, the media showed up because he was there. Sharpton turned stories that would have been forgotten into headlines.
Sharpton grew up obsessed with preaching — as a small child, after church,…
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