The Rev. Al Sharpton went all in during Aretha Franklin’s home going ceremony. After taking the podium inside the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit Friday (Aug. 31), Sharpton put Donald Trump on blast, while paying tribute to Franklin.
“You know, the other Sunday on my show [PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton], I misspelled ‘respect,’” Sharpton began. “A lot of y’all corrected me. Now, I want y’all to help me correct President Trump to teach him what it means.”
As the crowd broke into applause, Sharpton explained the swipe at Trump. “I say that because when word had went out that Miss Franklin passed, Trump said, ‘She used to work for me.’ No, she used to perform for you. She worked for us,” he declared. “Aretha never took orders from nobody but God.”
Of course, Sharpton’s entire speech wasn’t totally about Trump’s comments about the Queen of Soul. Sharpton praised Franklin’s voice and her activism, noting that she was a civil rights activist, as well as a feminist before it was “popular.” No matter how many accolades Franklin amassed in her career, the music legend “was never one to “forget where she came from,” Sharpton said.
To close, Sharpton read a letter from Barack Obama. The letter received a standing ovation. Watch video of Sharpton’s entire speech below.