Harvard Professor Ogletree: Sharpton is Obama's Link to the Streets: NEW YORK — The Rev. Al Sharpton is a “lightning rod” for President Barack Obama on inner-city streets, Obama's former Harvard mentor and friend said Saturday at a forum in Harlem.But Sharpton, who led the event, told The Associated Press that America's first Black president “has to work both for us and for others,” and that if Obama were to push a race-based agenda, “that would only organize the right against him.”
Sharpton spoke on the last day of an annual conference organized by his National Action Network. Speakers included three members of Obama's Cabinet and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, as well as Charles Ogletree, the president's Harvard Law School professor, now a friend.
