Still reeling from the Donald Sterling rant that led to the resignation of the Los Angeles NAACP president, the civil rights group honored the Rev. Al Sharpton and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti with "Person of the Year" honors.
"The NAACP is bigger than any one man or one incident," Sharpton said at the Thursday night 100th anniversary gala, the
Los Angeles Times reported. "You do not judge friends when everything is going your way. You judge friends when things are in question and they show up."
Sharpton, whose own past came back to haunt him recently in an expose of his time as an
FBI informant, drew loud applause with his comment that "Sterling may be rich, but he's not nearly as rich as the history of this organization," the Times reported.
The chapter's former president,
Leon Jenkins, resigned earlier this month when the chapter came under fire for ties to Sterling – and his shady past as a Michigan judge came under scrutiny.
The Clippers owner had been set to receive a lifetime achievement award at the gala until an
audiotape surfaced in which he is heard asking his girlfriend not to publicly associate with black people.
The organization gave its lifetime achievement award instead to retired defense attorney Charles Patton.
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