Nelson Mandela

Sunday, December 19, 1999

The Rev. Al Sharpton’s efforts to recruit people for “Amadou’s Army” – a group of New Yorkers who will go to Albany for the Amadou Diallo murder trial – got an unexpected boost yesterday from Winnie Mandela.
Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid activist and former wife of Nelson Mandela, arrived at Sharpton’s Harlem headquarters unannounced to support the effort.
“It’s wonderful that, as we stand here and fight for a child from Africa, Amadou Diallo, the queen from Africa and everywhere else would make a surprise appearance,” Sharpton said.
“Amandla! Amandla!,” Mandela, her right fist up in the air, said, chanting the Zulu word for power and a rallying cry of the anti-apartheid movement.
“In South Africa, they used the police to carry out their racist laws, but out of that was born a progressive police movement,” Mandela said. “They did exactly what you are doing here.”
The gathering was for Sharpton’s weekly radio show, at the end of which about 200 people attending were asked to sign up to attend the trial at its new venue in Albany.
State appeals court judges stunned the city Thursday when they moved the trial to Albany from the Bronx, ruling that the four cops charged in the Feb. 4 killing of Diallo could not get a fair trial by jury in the Bronx.
Saikou Diallo, Amadou’s father, said his son’s rights would be diminished by the trial being moved to Albany and called for the federal government to take over the case.
Sharpton said the signup would mobilize the same multiracial group that protested in front of city Police Headquarters in lower Manhattan in the shooting’s aftermath.
“If the cops involved in the shooting think they’ve gotten away with something by having the case moved to Albany, they should check out Justin Volpe’s new address,” Sharpton said, calling for a rally Tuesday to urge prosecutors in the case to seek federal intervention.