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The Rev. Al Sharpton packed UNCG’s Aycock Auditorium on Tuesday night for the school’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.

The civil rights activist and former presidential candidate told the audience that this year’s King celebrations are happening at the best and worst of times.

“We’ve seen, with the election of Barack Obama, the living example of what is possible in America against all odds and against all disbelief,” Sharpton said. “But what he has inherited is nothing short of mind-boggling. In many ways, one looks at the task ahead as almost as improbable as the possibility that he would become president in 2008 or 2009.”

Sharpton said Obama’s election as the first black president is a step in the right direction, but does not fulfill King’s dream. Much work remains to be done.

“When in basketball we had the Dream Team, they still had to play the game,” Sharpton said. “Just getting the team on the floor doesn’t get you the championship. You have to look at the scorecard.”

Sharpton said America’s scorecard remains pretty bleak — the racial and economic inequality and global warfare King worked against his whole life is still pervasive.

Many Americans have forgotten what Dr. King actually stood for, Sharpton said, and fail to recognize him as a fiery and controversial social activist.

Sharpton compared the King celebrated on the holiday each year to Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny — harmless children’s characters that obscure the true meanings of holidays celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and his resurrection.

Much the same point was made by activist and former Black Panther Angela Davis, who was the keynote speaker at the same celebration in 2006.

A columnist for UNCG’s student newspaper, The Carolinian, criticized the school’s choice of Sharpton as keynote speaker, citing his attack on Duke lacrosse players accused of raping a black woman before the woman changed her story and charges were dropped.
Sharpton said such criticism doesn’t bother him.

Barack Obama’s election was possible because of King’s work, Sharpton said, but Americans should not forget that King was never as popular as Obama.

“There was never a time in his life when most Americans admired Dr. King,” Sharpton said. “When Martin Luther King was given the Nobel Peace Prize, there were Americans who said, 'How could you give a prize to a man who caused violence with his marches?’ He was denounced and indicted as an income tax cheat, he had the government bugging his home, his office and hotel rooms, and he was ultimately killed.”

Sharpton said King never worried about public opinion and did not take polls.

He simply did what he believed was right and made history.

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com