Video

At a march in mid-December organized by Al Sharpton's National Action Network in Washington D.C., organizers rushed the stage and cla...


At a march in mid-December organized by Al Sharpton's National Action Network in Washington D.C., organizers rushed the stage and claimed that the old guard was attempting to hijack the nascent Black Lives Matter movement away from its founders. "This movement was started by the young people," Johnetta Elzie, a key organizer from St. Louis, said to the raucous crowd. "There should be young people all over this stage." It was one of the most visible examples of the clash between the old, signified by Sharpton, and the new, represented by grassroots groups who emerged from Ferguson and New York after the Michael Brown and Eric Garner grand jury decisions. Sharpton has been extremely sensitive to this criticism. "Oh, you young and hip, you're full of fire. You're the new face," he sneered at a recent gathering at the headquarters of NAN in Harlem. "All that the stuff that they know will titillate your ears. That's what a pimp says to a ho." At an MLK Day march in Harlem, the division between the old and the new was quieter but no less pronounced.

You Might Also Like

0 comments

Flickr Images