Sharpton's Branching Out to Baltimore

The Rev. Al Sharpton has established a branch office of his National Action Network in Baltimore. Why? Nobody knows except God and Sharpton. Nonetheless, Sharpton's linked up with a former state senator, Larry Young, who's trying to refashion a public career after being ejected from the Maryland General Assembly for ethical lapses and all manner of misdeeds.

And to further add to the symmetry, Baltimore's also home base for the NAACP. Here, former Congressman Kweisi Mfume presides over the nation's oldest civil rights organization as well as a weekly tv show on black issues, Bottom Line, on which Sharpton has been an occasional guest. He's also been a civil rights demonstration sidekick of Mfume's.

Young, now a race-baiting talk show host on Radio One's WOLB-AM and a local political asterisk, has twice attempted to assume the presidency of the NAACP's Baltimore chapter and was twice rejected by its membership. He is now settling for the acronymic NAN and wherever the amorphous title of "leader" takes him politically.

NAN's Baltimore chapter was formally launched in January at the inner city's J. Benjamin Office Complex, with Sharpton and Young performing the honors before about 500 attendees, according to Young's estimate. At the meeting, Sharpton knighted Young the chapter's leader, a title that will stand until elections are held later in the spring. So far, the Baltimore chapter of NAN has 280 paid members, at $40 a card, out of a goal of 500, according to Young.

Baltimore, 67 percent black and with no recent history of racial or ethnic confrontations resembling New York's, joins five other cities in the fledgling network?chapters in Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Washington and, of course, New York. Sharpton also hopes to convene NAN chapters in Atlanta, Miami and Philadelphia. His goal is to establish chapters in 10 major cities.

NAN, according to the website Africana.com, is a civil rights organization that was founded in 1991 by Sharpton and "that seeks economic justice and political empowerment for the disenfranchised." Well, let's see exactly what "political empowerment" means and just who Sharpton considers the "disenfranchised."

According to NAN's own website, nationalaction.net, Sharpton not too long ago convened a meeting of black and Hispanic media executives in Miami at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa. That's disenfranchised? The gathering's purpose was "to exchange information, insights and viewpoints about the Madison Avenue Initiative [a project of NAN], as well as to discuss the issue of discrimination in the advertising industry."

Translation: How to get more bucks for their bang.

"The initiative," the poop sheet continues, "was formed to address the issue of fairness in respect to changing demographics in the multicultural media marketplace. The objective of the initiative is to create opportunities for minority-owned agencies and media outlets, while growing brands and profits in a dramatically changing demographic environment."

It should be noted here that Mfume had also complained loudly and often about discrimination in the media, and was recently awarded a nationally syndicated tv show by his employer at WBAL-TV, the New York-based Hearst-Argyle Corp.

Back to the present tense. Young, Sharpton's new buddy and playmate, achieved local celebrity as a scalawag when he was booted from the Maryland Senate by his colleagues?the first expulsion in more than 100 years?but held harmless by a jury of his peers when they acquitted him of criminal wrongdoing.

The story of Young is a tale of money in motion. The prosecutors had, as they say in legal circles, hard evidence: tax returns, checks encoded with Young's purported initials, consulting contracts, testimony of memos written by Young, even evidence of Young's alleged intervention with government officials on behalf of Prime Health Corp. of Lanham, MD.

They had witnesses, too: the governor's chief of staff; a state college president from whom Young had twisted a consulting contract; health department officials; legislators; and even the alleged briber, Dr. Christian Chinwuba, the principal owner of Prime Health.

But prosecutors failed to convince the jury that a bribe is a bribe, even though $72,000 is alleged to have changed hands?all while Young was serving two masters, the citizens of Maryland and his private consulting clients.

During an earlier run for president of the Baltimore City Council, it was discovered that Young had padded his resume with a college degree he did not earn.

Politics and economics make perfect bedfellows. So the marriage of Sharpton and Young was not conceived in heaven so much as it was propagated by the rules of the marketplace. They needed each other, Sharpton to broaden his reach, and Young to gain attention as he claws for political recognition and attempts to regain legitimacy. And each would like to be mayor, Sharpton of New York, Young of Baltimore.

Young said in an interview that his alliance with Sharpton is a natural extension of his talk radio show, on which Sharpton is an occasional guest. "I've always admired the Rev. Sharpton," Young said, "and when he was a guest on my show he discussed his plan to expand into 10 major cities and he asked me if I'd be the leader of the Baltimore chapter."

So what NAN's Baltimore agenda?

"We're about political empowerment, economic empowerment, social justice and fairness in the criminal justice system," Young said.

Outside of NAN's framework, Young also has his own local Political Action Network, whose current protests and causes include the high cost of utilities and drug treatment on demand in a city where one in eight adults (60,000) is an addict. PAN also has a "nightlife committee," which Young said is investigating why bars in white neighborhoods receive better police protection that those in black areas.

Locally, Young's voice is an electronic bullhorn. Radio One's four Baltimore stations?WOLB, Spirit 1400, Magic 95.9 and 92Q?have a combined total of two million listeners a day, according to Young.

Young said the need for a chapter of NAN in Baltimore was evident because other civil rights organizations have been "passive and quiet." Asked if his observation was a thumb-to-the-nose at Mfume and the NAACP, Young said "each organization has a different route. We're [NAN] taking the more aggressive, challenging direction. On my show last week, for example, the Reverend Sharpton issued a call for a National Action Network political action convention later this year that would bring people together from all over the country."

For his part, Sharpton is expected to return to Baltimore in April to formally organize the fledgling chapter by nominating and electing officers and scheduling several fundraising events such as a jazz and fashion show and a major draw featuring a nationally prominent motivational speaker, according to Young.

And what is the future for Sharpton and NAN in Baltimore?

"By being rabble-rousers, we'll get support other organizations can't get," Young said.