"It was Michael Jackson that brought blacks and whites and Asians and Latinos together. It was Michael Jackson that made us sing 'we are the world,'" said Sharpton.

"It was that comfort level that kids from Japan and Ghana and France and Iowa and Pennsylvania got comfortable enough with each other so later it wasn't strange to us to watch Oprah on television," the reverend continued. "Those young kids grew up from being teenage comfortable fans of Michael to being 40 years old and being comfortable to vote for a person of color to be the president of the United States of America."

"Michael did that," Sharpton said. "Michael made us love each other."