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 on 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 organise the right against him".
Sharpton spoke on the last day of an annual conference organised 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.
"Al Sharpton has become the lightning rod in moving Obama's agenda forward," Ogletree told the AP, describing Sharpton as a conduit between the disadvantaged and powerful leaders.
Widespread access
"And he has access to both the streets and the suites, to make sure that the people who are voiceless, faceless and powerless finally have some say."
Standing at the back of a balcony overlooking Harlem's ornate First Corinthian Baptist Church, the 57-year-old lawyer said that some black Americans may be disappointed the president they helped elect isn't doing more for them.
"And President Obama expected to do a lot more," Ogletree, referring to the challenges Obama faces in two wars and the struggling economy, said.
Still, he predicted, the new health care law would affect uninsured black Americans more than any other segment of the population.
But clearly, Sharpton was at the centre of this forum.
On Saturday, the front page of The Washington Post featured a photo of him with a headline that read: "Activist Al Sharpton takes on a new role as administration ally." Sharpton chuckled at the notion.
"I've been as much in this White House as I was in George (W.) Bush's — it's only when Bush invited me to the White House, it was him reaching out, when Obama invites me, all of a sudden, we're allies," Sharpton joked during a break, sitting in a pew on the altar that served as a high-tech stage.
Amid a heated national debate over whether black leaders should align themselves with the president, Sharpton has defended Obama against criticism from television host Tavis Smiley that "black folk are catching hell" and Obama should do more to help them.
Black Americans, Sharpton said, "need to solve our own problems".
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