Feb. 28--During his sermon at First AME Church of Los Angeles on Sunday, the Rev. Al Sharpton said he planned "to start a movement" to draw attention to the lack of diversity among this year's nominees for Oscars and said that the focus needs to be on Hollywood's decision makers.
"In 2016, a year when we saw movies like Idris Elba's 'Beast of No Nation' and 'Straight out of Compton' and 'Concussion,' not one of these actors and actresses of color was nominated for their roles," Sharpton told the black congregation. "There are no blacks who can greenlight a film. We can put a black family in the White House, but we can't put a black in the boardroom of power in Hollywood."
Sharpton, speaking at the church's 10 a.m. service, told the congregation that "we're going to start a movement. Since they couldn't do it on their own, we're going to give them a little pressure."
His comments drew applause and chants of approval from the congregation, which invited Sharpton to speak as part of the church's 144th-anniversary celebration.
"We cannot have the face of American culture exclude us," Sharpton said. "This is not about the artists, this is about the industry."
The reverend then turned to the host of the 88th annual Academy Awards that will be held this evening at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Actor and comedian Chris Rock, who is black, will host the ceremony for the second time.
"People ask me, 'What about Chris Rock, aren't you friends?,'" Sharpton said. "He tells jokes. I tell the truth. We get along fine."
This drew more applause and chants from the congregation.
After the service, Sharpton held a news conference to discuss a rally he plans to hold Sunday afternoon at Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, just a few blocks from the Dolby Theatre. Many of the celebrities attending the Oscars will pass by this busy intersection.
#OscarsSoWhite: Full coverage of the boycott and Hollywood's reaction
Sharpton held the news conference on the grounds of a mansion next to the former home of Hattie McDaniel, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role as Mammy in "Gone With The Wind."
He held up a white Oscar statuette to make his point. "They ought to present them as they are," he said. "White Oscars."
Sharpton's rally is part of a series of protests held by his National Action Network in cities around the country, including Miami, Atlanta and Detroit, according to the group.
In 2012, The Times reported that Oscar voters were 94% white and 77% male. Four years later, the academy has made scant progress: Oscar voters are 91% white and 76% male, according to a new Times study.
Blacks are about 3% of the academy, up from 2%; Asians and Latinos are each just over 2%, with both groups up slightly.
The academy has invited more women and minority group members over the last four years, but with its 6,261 voting members appointed for life, the organization's ranks were on track to remain overwhelmingly white and male for decades.
Under fire for nominating an all-white slate of actors for two years in a row, the academy last month vowed to double the number of women and minority members by 2020. It also adopted controversial new rules that will allow it to take away voting rights from inactive members.
"Our goal is to make sure that we are active in bringing in different voices regardless of gender or race or sexual orientation," academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in an interview Thursday. "Inclusiveness in this organization, that is our goal."
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