Rev Al Sharpton leads protest against Bill Ackman after Claudine Gay resigns as Harvard president

Reverend Al Sharpton led a picket outside the Manhattan office of hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman on Thursday 4 January, to protest his attacks towards Harvard University president Claudine Gay.

Mr Ackman, a Harvard graduate who has donated millions to his former school, was a key voice in calling for Dr Gay’s resignation.

She stepped down this week, in the wake of a string of plagiarism accusations and the high-profile antisemitism row on the Ivy League campus.

Reverend Sharpton, the renowned civil rights leader, believes Dr Gay was pushed out unfairly.

“President Gay’s resignation is about more than a person or a single incident. This is an attack on every Black woman in this country who’s put a crack in the glass ceiling,’ he said, ahead of the protest.