By National Action Network
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
NEW YORK, NY (October 16, 2024) – Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), will lead a get out the vote tour in Central Ohio today with appearances from Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. Joyce (OH-3), and Korey Wise and New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam of the Central Park 5. The visit through the Greater Columbus area is the second phase of the non-partisan tour, following a bus trip with NAN volunteers to Philadelphia last month.
“NAN made a commitment to ensure eligible Black voters, who are expected to make up 14% of the electorate this November, know where both candidates stand on key issues impacting their communities,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of NAN. “We will be in Ohio to once again directly speak to those communities, so they can particularly hear the experiences of the Central Park 5, who continued to be attacked by Donald Trump even years after they were exonerated.”
Rev. Sharpton served as youth director for Rev. Jackson while he was a teenager, and went on to advise his Presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. In August, Rev. Sharpton and two of Rev. Jackson’s sons led him onto the stage during the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Wise and Council Member Salaam, both of whom were wrongly convicted in the 1989 Central Park Jogger case, will also take part in the tour. Donald Trump gained notoriety at the time for his full-page ad in the New York Times in which the real estate developer called on New York State to restore the death penalty for the five accused teenagers. The former president has refused to apologize for those remarks, as recently as last month’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Wise and Salaam shared their experiences alongside Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson on the stage at the DNC. The powerful remarks followed Rev. Sharpton’s report to the DNC on where both candidates stood on policies from voting rights to criminal justice reform.
Rev. Sharpton, Wise, and Salaam led a bus tour from the NAN House of Justice in Harlem to Philadelphia last month to continue this discussion. The civil rights leader spoke to how voting can protect hard-won policies, while staying home put those protections at risk of backsliding. On Wednesday, those discussions will continue at a prayer breakfast at Trinity Baptist Church and then during a forum at Columbus State Community College featuring Rep. Beatty.
WHO:
Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of NAN
Members of the Exonerated Central Park 5
SCHEDULE:
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
First stop: 8:30 a.m.
Trinity Baptist Church
461 St Clair Avenue
Columbus, OH 43203
Time: 8:30 a.m. breakfast
Second stop:
Columbus State Community College
5100 Cornerstone Drive
Delaware, Ohio 43015
Time: 1 p.m. community forum
About National Action Network (NAN)
National Action Network is one of the leading civil rights organizations in the Nation with chapters throughout the entire United States. Founded in 1991 by Reverend Al Sharpton, NAN works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice, decency and equal opportunities for all people regardless of race, religion, nationality or gender.
For more information go to www.nationalactionnetwork.net.
