In New Jersey, Black voters have been the margin of victory for decades — turning out, organizing and picking governors and mayors.
But what have Black New Jerseyans truly gained?
That’s the question Al Sharpton asked and answered as the keynote speaker last Friday during the State of Black New Jersey: 2026 Economic Summit at the Princeton Marriott.
“We’ve gone from picking cotton to picking governors and mayors, but we get no pay for political slavery,” he said.
Sharpton points to disparity studies that should be a political earthquake, pointing to a study that showed Black won less than 1% of government contracts — and what that represents.
“It’s not a race thing; it’s an investment thing,” he said, explaining it this way.
Black people in New Jersey are not just voting; they’re investing — through their consumer dollars, their taxes and their turnout, Sharpton said.
“If we invest our dollars with you, if we put our votes with you, then where is the return,” he asked. “For people to accept our consumer dollar and accept our votes, but do not accept what they’re going to reciprocate with that, is for us to be back in an enslaved environment.”
To Sharpton, without reciprocity, the relationship between Black communities and New Jersey’s power structure is not partnership, it’s exploitation dressed up in modern language, he said.
The lack of access to public money is beyond troublesome, Sharpton said.
In a state where he says every major business is subsidized with government money, Black New Jerseyans are literally underwriting their own exclusion.
If Black communities help elect the leadership that writes the budget, why aren’t they written into the contracts, he asked.
The same logic applies to labor and pensions. He describes Black and Brown union members whose retirement money is invested with developers who then price their grandmothers out of their neighborhoods.
Underneath the statistics and policy talk is a demand for a different posture, Sharpton said.
It starts with looking in the mirror.
“What’s wrong with us that we accept this, what’s wrong with us that we have such inferiority complex that we don’t demand the trade that our numbers dictate,” he said.
Sharpton called for Black New Jersey to move from being a loyal base to being a hard-bargaining partner.
In his framing, New Jersey politics has been running a tab — taking votes, taking tax dollars, taking consumer power — without paying the bill.
“Now, it’s paying time,” he said. “Now, it’s time for us to stand up and represent what those that sacrificed for us, wanted us to represent.
“We don’t want favors. We want equality.”
