Sharpton, Al(fred Charles), Jr (1954– )

US African-American Pentecostal minister and political and civil-rights activist. A campaigner against injustice, racism, and inequality, he has followed in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, Jr, and Jesse Jackson, favouring direct action and civil disobedience. Sharpton has never held elected office, but has contested unsuccessfully the US Senate seat for New York in 1978, 1992, and 1994; the position of mayor of New York City in 1997; and the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2004.

In the 1970s and 1980s he worked with the singer James Brown and the boxing promoter Don King, but also headed his own National Youth Movement, to fight drugs, register young African Americans to vote, and provide job opportunities. In 1991 he formed the National Action Network to promote voter registration and support community businesses.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Sharpton began preaching at the age of four and was ordained as a minister at the age of nine. He initially lived in relative comfort, in Queens, New York, but at the age of ten had to move to a housing project in Brooklyn, after his parent's marriage collapsed. In 1969, Jesse Jackson appointed him youth director of Operation Breadbasket, to promote better jobs for African Americans.