Here's an in-depth look at the life of Rev. Al Sharpton, political activist and Baptist minister.

Personal: Birth date: October 3, 1954

Birth place: Brooklyn, New York

Birth name: Alfred Charles Sharpton, Jr.

Father: Alfred Sharpton, Sr., carpenter/contractor

Mother: Ada Essie (Richards) Sharpton

Marriages: Kathy Lee (Jordan) Sharpton (1980-present, separated); Marsha Tinsley (less than a year)

Children: Ashley, September 1987; Dominique, July 31, 1986

Education: Attended Brooklyn College

Religion: Baptist

Other Facts: Democratic candidate for President in the 2004 election.

Timeline: 1958 - Preaches his first sermon, "Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled," before learning to read or write.

1964 - Is ordained as a Pentecostal minister.

1967 - Meets soul singer James Brown who later introduces him to his future wife, Kathy Jordan. Their close relationship leads to Sharpton's adoption of the same hairstyle.

1969 - Is named youth director for Operation Breadbasket by Jesse Jackson.

1970s - Founds National Youth Movement to raise money for poor youth and fight drugs (later renamed United African Movement).

1972 - Is named youth director of Shirley Chisholm's presidential campaign.

1987 - Becomes spokesman for the family of Tawana Brawley, a black teenager who claimed she was abducted and raped by six white police officers.

January 21, 1988 - A Newsday article reveals that for five years he was an FBI informant on organized crime, public figures, and black civic leaders. Sharpton denies this claim.

1989 - Is charged with 67 felony counts of tax evasion, larceny and fraud. Is acquitted on all counts and pleads guilty to the misdemeanor charge of failure to file state income tax for 1986.

1990 - Supports the five black defendants in the Central Park jogger case where a white female jogger was gang raped and beaten. In December 2002 all convictions are overturned when another man confesses to the crime and DNA evidence supports his confession.

1991 - Founds the National Action Network, a civil rights organization whose purpose is to expose the evils of racial profiling and police brutality.

January 12, 1991 - Is stabbed in the chest under the left clavicle while leading a march in Bensonhurst against the verdict in the case of the 1989 murder of Yusef Hawkins. The wound is not considered life-threatening. Michael Riccardi is convicted of the crime and Sharpton speaks at Riccardi's sentencing hearing, asking for leniency.

1992 - Enters politics and places third of four Democratic candidates in New York's primary for the US Senate.

1994 - Runs and loses in the primary for Daniel Patrick Moynihan's U.S. Senate seat.