Al Sharpton, a figure in the civil rights movement to pay tribute to George Floyd
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"You changed the world George," said Reverend Al Sharpton, a figure in the civil rights movement, during a ceremony to honor George Floyd on Thursday in Minneapolis.
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Read moreCeremonies in honor of George Floyd , the African-American man who died of police asphyxiation, began on Thursday, June 4. They must last six days until the funeral Tuesday, June 9. The first was held at the North Central Christian University in Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd died, in the presence of several personalities.
After 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence - the time of a white policeman kneeling on his neck - the Reverend Al Sharpton delivered a touching eulogy. " You changed the world George, " he said. It is not the first time that this emblematic figure in the fight for civil rights has captivated his audience.
Ordained pastor at 9
The 65-year-old New York Baptist pastor, also a TV and radio host, is known for his speaking skills.
Legend has it that he made his first preaching at the age of 4. Ordained a pastor at the age of 9, he founded, as a teenager, the National Youth Movement against Racism, the starting point of 50 years of commitment in the fight for civil rights for this friend of James Brown.
This journey was interspersed with controversy, as in the 1980s, when he fiercely defended a young woman who wrongly claimed to have been gang raped by four white men.
Today, the organization he chairs, the National Action Network, is a must for any aspiring Democrat in the White House. He tried himself in politics. Candidate for the posts of senator and mayor of New York, he even ran for the democratic nomination for the presidential of 2004. Always in vain.
Al Sharpton is however essential. The one who dreams of Martin Luther King of the 21st century has established himself over the years as the megaphone of African-Americans in search of justice, on the front line of all markets, after the Eric Garner , Trayvon Martin or even today George Floyd.
► Read also: “Take your knees from our necks”: a very political tribute to George Floyd
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