Al Sharpton has vowed to storm Bill Ackman's offices in Manhattan following the hedge fund manager's successful campaign against Claudine Gay.
Ackman, a Harvard graduate who has donated tens of millions to his alma mater, became a loud voice calling for her to resign.
Ackman, who is Jewish and married to an Israeli, famed architect Neri Oxman, was outraged by Gay's response to students justifying the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
Her testimony before Congress on December 5, when she could not provide a clear answer to the question of whether calling for the genocide of Jews was hate speech, angered him and much of the country.
On December 12, the first reports emerged claiming that Gay had plagiarized parts of her academic work, fueling calls for her resignation.
But Sharpton, the famed civil rights leader, said Tuesday that Gay was kicked out because she was black.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, pictured on Dec. 19, called for a picket at Bill Ackman's office Thursday in protest of Ackman's campaign to oust Harvard's first black president
Bill Ackman, 57 (left), founded Pershing Square Capital Management and is now worth $4.1 billion. He has campaigned for the impeachment of Claudine Gay (right)
“President Gay's resignation is about more than one person or a single incident. “This is an attack on every Black woman in this country who has put a crack in the glass ceiling,” he said.
Sharpton accused Ackman, 57, of a “relentless campaign against President Gay, not because of her leadership or credentials, but because he felt she was a DEI mercenary.”
Sharpton said his civil rights organization, the National Action Network (NAN), will protest outside Ackman's office in Manhattan on Thursday.
“If he believes that Black Americans do not belong in the C-Suite, the Ivy League or any other hallowed hall, we feel at home outside his office,” Sharpton wrote in a statement.
Ackman spent the day celebrating Gay's resignation — the second of three Ivy League presidents to step down after the disastrous congressional testimony.
Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned on December 9, following a similar outcry over her legalistic and ambiguous responses.
Ackman has defended his plan to force out Gay, insisting it had nothing to do with money
The third president, Sally Kornbluth, head of MIT, is the last of the three to keep her job: Ackman tweeted “Et tu Sally?”
When one critic, Gregg Gonsalves, a professor at Yale, called Ackman a “pernicious influence on American education” and an “odious” person who “thinks his money equals wisdom” and “gives him the right to speak at will” bullying,” Ackman hit back.
“What did I say about @Harvard President Gay having to do with money?” Ackman replied.
“President Gay resigned because she lost the confidence of the university as a whole through her actions and omissions and other leadership failures.
“Besides voicing the anti-gay concerns held by thousands of Harvard students, faculty, and alumni, what is 'pernicious' about my so-called influence on American education?
“Gay resigned because it was untenable for her to remain president of Harvard due to her leadership shortcomings.
“Would you like Gay to be president of Yale, where you are apparently on the faculty?”
When someone said Ackman was “disingenuous” about money, Ackman responded, “How did I use money?” I do not understand. I have never threatened to withhold donations etc.
“President Gay's resignation is not about money. It is about her failed leadership and questions about her academic performance.'