Whenever I speak of the good right Reverend Al Sharpton here on this blog, some of my readers mention his handling of the Tawana Brawley case. Here we are 24 years later and Sharpton still stands by a story that the courts of law and public opinion have ruled a hoax.
When asked on the CBS’ “60 Minutes” to explain why he never apologized for the accusations that proved false, Sharpton said, “I don’t know that.” “I have thought about that a million times,” – “I just don’t believe they treated that case fair.”
In 1987, 15-year-old Tawana Brawley claimed she had been raped, abducted and held for four days by a group of white men and one cop. She was found in a garbage bag, covered in feces and charcoal-scrawled racial epithets all over her.
Sharpton at the time, was a young, inexperienced activist when he took over publicity for Brawley and made inflammatory accusations of a massive cover up, even naming an assistant district attorney as one of the rapists.
The case fell apart when a grand jury refused to indict those accused, citing no physical evidence of rape was evident. Witnesses said, they had also seen Brawley publicly, at the time she was supposedly held captive.
So for those of my readers who continue to hound this issue, you need to know: Sharpton may not be where he was politically, economically and financially in 1987 but he still refuses to admit he was wrong or mislead in the Brawley case.
