{"id":358613,"date":"2026-09-28T09:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358613\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T09:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:42:08","slug":"how-charlie-rangel-won-over-al-sharpton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358613\/","title":{"rendered":"How Charlie Rangel won over Al Sharpton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlie Rangel is one of New York\u2019s 20 most influential politicians of the past 20 years. See the full list.<\/a><\/p>\n

The late Rep. Charlie Rangel liked to say that he \u201cnever had a bad day\u201d after a Korean War battle in which he led men out of a harrowing skirmish with Chinese troops while wounded.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just a catchphrase lent to the title of his memoir spanning the pioneering Harlem Democrat\u2019s life, 46-year tenure in Congress and ascent to chairing the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, becoming the first Black member to do so.<\/p>\n

The motto was a \u201ccontagious\u201d philosophy, said civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton. \u201cWe had a mentality of \u2018don\u2019t cry in your milk, keep going.\u2019 And we got that from Charlie,\u201d Sharpton said of Rangel, who died in 2025 at 94 years old.<\/p>\n

Born more than 20 years after him \u2013\u00a0in Brooklyn, not Harlem \u2013 Sharpton was not a direct contemporary of Rangel\u2019s. Unlike Rangel, Sharpton wasn\u2019t a member of Harlem\u2019s Gang of Four. When he moved his National Action Network to Harlem, Sharpton was seen by some as part of the new guard. But the two would come to work toward a shared vision \u2013 one they viewed through different glasses, as Sharpton puts it.<\/p>\n

Sharpton reflected on Rangel\u2019s legacy in an interview with City & State. Here is Sharpton, in his own words, on the \u201cLion of Lenox Avenue.\u201d The responses have been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

On his first impressions of Rangel \u2026<\/p>\n

I was a teenager that had been an ardent fan of (Rep.) Adam Clayton Powell (Jr.). When Adam Clayton Powell ran the last time, in 1970, I would come up from Brooklyn and help volunteer. I was too young to vote. Rangel won the primary, and I was heartbroken. \u2026 By 1971, the Rev. Jesse Jackson had started (the civil rights organization Operation) PUSH, and (through that) I became very friendly with (Manhattan) Borough President Percy Sutton, who was close to Charlie Rangel. They used to tease me, \u201cWe reconverted Adam\u2019s boy.\u201d \u2026 (Rangel) surprised me because he was not the establishment, backroom kind of politician that I thought was opposing Adam. He was active. He would talk to me about how he marched in Selma and that he agreed with our activism. And so we became more and more friendly, and by the time we got to the \u201980s, many of the cases I\u2019d fight \u2013\u00a0whether it was Bernhard Goetz, whether it was Howard Beach \u2013 he would call me. He\u2019d be right there.<\/p>\n

On going to jail together \u2026<\/p>\n

As a result of the police killing of Amadou Diallo, I had started daily sit-ins at 1 Police Plaza. We\u2019d go get arrested like (at) the vigils with the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C, (in the \u201980s). We\u2019re three or four days in, I\u2019m at this prefight luncheon (at Madison Square Garden with Don King). Charlie Rangel\u2019s there as a guest of Don King, as I was. And Charlie looks at me and said, \u201cReverend, I\u2019m hearing that you\u2019ve got people going to jail every day about this Diallo thing.\u201d I said, \u201cYes, I am.\u201d And he said, \u201cWhat time do you go?\u201d I said, \u201c10 o\u2019clock.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019ll be there in the morning.\u201d \u2026 About half an hour later, I go into the men\u2019s room and former Mayor David Dinkins is in the men\u2019s room. He said, \u201cCharlie\u2019s going tomorrow morning?\u201d I said, \u201cYeah.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019m coming.\u201d I really didn\u2019t believe either one of them. I told my publicist at that time, Rachel Noerdlinger, I said, \u201cYou can put out we\u2019re going to have Congressman Rangel, but I don\u2019t believe Dinkins.\u201d (The next morning) about five minutes to 10, Rangel\u2019s car pulls up and he and Dinkins got out and went and took a knee in front of 1 Police Plaza and went to jail with me. That\u2019s the kind of guy Charlie Rangel was. And this was when he was at the height of his power.<\/p>\n

On Rangel\u2019s influence in Harlem and in Washington, D.C. \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was one of the most powerful people in Washington. When (President Bill) Clinton was in, and we wanted to get things done, he\u2019d get us a hearing. And he would tell Bill Clinton, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to talk to Sharpton,\u201d which he did. Clinton and I developed a rapport because of Charlie. Charlie got Clinton to move his post-presidential office to Harlem, 125th Street. Charlie Rangel did that. Ironically a lot of what Adam pioneered in Congress \u2013 the war on poverty, healthcare and all \u2013 Charlie maintained. If Adam Clayton Powell was the Moses of New York politics, Charlie Rangel was the Joshua. Adam brought us across the Red Sea, where we were not any longer in the bondage of Tammany Hall. But we weren\u2019t in the Promised Land yet, we needed a Joshua. Charlie Rangel brought us across the Jordan by getting us a Black mayor and a Black state comptroller and a Black attorney general. That all came from the era and work of Charlie Rangel.<\/p>\n

On Rangel\u2019s physical legacy and those who follow in his mold \u2026<\/p>\n

When you look at the development, urban development up in Harlem, that\u2019s directly Charlie Rangel. Cultural institutions, directly Charlie Rangel. He got the funding, he put it through. And I think when you look at a lot of the criminal justice reform, that was Charlie Rangel.<\/p>\n

Those of us that were a generation behind him, the ones that I see is (Rep.) Gregory Meeks is absolutely a student of Charlie Rangel and is in that tradition. He and (Rep.) Yvette Clarke, I think, would be the ones that would come to mind.<\/p>\n

On Rangel\u2019s optimism \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

No matter what happened, whether it was the election of Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1993 \u2013 which broke a lot of our hearts because it was Dinkins\u2019 reelection (campaign) \u2013 or later in life where we saw the election of Donald Trump \u2013 we were apoplectic about him beating Hillary (Clinton) \u2013 Charlie Rangel was always the guy that we\u2019d meet at Sylvia\u2019s or somewhere the day after. \u201cLet me tell you what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d He was always the one with, \u201cLet\u2019s move on.\u201d He\u2019s the only guy that I know that wouldn\u2019t mourn any defeat. He was the guy that says, \u201cAll right, let\u2019s pick up the pieces, we\u2019ll make this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

On whether that optimism fell with the ethics charges<\/a> he was found guilty of in Congress \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think he felt, in many ways, individuals in Congress betrayed him, because he felt that what they came with was not credible. So I think it was more of a personal disappointment in some of the Congress. But it didn\u2019t shake his mission at all.<\/p>\n

On the reported rivalry<\/a> between him and Rangel \u2026<\/p>\n

It was a political (thing),\u00a0taking different sides, but he and I always talked. He understood. First, he didn\u2019t endorse me for mayor, and I understood. I said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got institutions here. You\u2019ve got to do what you got to do.\u201d Nobody thought I\u2019d get the vote I ended up getting.<\/p>\n

And then when he ran (for reelection in 2014), I told him that I would not do anything to hurt him, but one of my board members, the Rev. (Michael) Walrond, was in the race, and I could not endorse against Rev. Walrond, so I\u2019ll just stay out of it. And he said, \u201cI understand that.\u201d He said, \u201cWell, I\u2019m coming to the rallies and all.\u201d And he did. So it was not a rivalry.<\/p>\n

I think that we had not different visions, (but) I think that we were looking at them through different glasses. So you could see the same thing, but he would see more of the old guard, and I would see people like Rev. Walrond and others that should come on.<\/p>\n

On Rangel\u2019s humor \u2026<\/p>\n

In the middle of a tense moment, he\u2019d find a way to say something that\u2019ll make you laugh. We were fighting something. I think Giuliani or somebody. No, we were fighting about stop-and-frisk, and I was angry about something with (then-Mayor Michael) Bloomberg. And Charlie Rangel came by the Saturday rally, and I said, \u201cYou know, Bloomberg is not a bad guy. Why can\u2019t he get that this is crazy?\u201d And Charlie looked at me and says, \u201cWell, I think you need to really explain it in policy terms. And by the way, since you got a TV show, I see you\u2019ve got a new suit on today.\u201d \u2026 He\u2019d rib you all the time. In the middle of you and your passion, he\u2019d bring you back down. He was excellent at that.<\/p>\n

On what Rangel would say to today\u2019s progressives and left-wing movement \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019d say, \u201cWhat are you going to deliver across the board?\u201d That it should not be just some well-educated kids that have a trust fund. But \u201cWhat are you going to do about the people in the projects? What are you going to do about the people in the Rangel Houses?\u201d He would be with them on the issues, but he would challenge them on broadening and organizing.<\/p>\n

On Rangel in retirement and the old guard growing older \u2026<\/p>\n

Maybe one or two Saturdays a month, he\u2019d come by our Saturday rally. I remember I honored Rev. Jackson, who was my mentor, and Charlie came in on a cane. And I looked at that stage that night and saw Rev. Jackson in a wheelchair and Charlie on a cane. And it really hit me that this era is slowly moving away. And he would come. We\u2019d be live on radio on Saturday morning. My emcees would say, \u201cYou\u2019ve got three minutes, you\u2019ve got four minutes.\u201d And I\u2019d always say, \u201cCharlie can talk as long as he wants. It doesn’t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Rangel is one of New York\u2019s 20 most influential politicians of the past 20 years. See the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[72903,12617,9,24,2327,63,7159,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-358613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-20th-anniversary","tag-interviews-profiles","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news-politics","tag-nyc","tag-personality","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}