You’ve seen him on MSNBC. You’ve seen him leading marches through the streets of Harlem or standing at a podium at a high-profile funeral. But if you were to stand right next to him, would you be looking up or down?
Honestly, the question of how tall is Al Sharpton is one of those things that keeps people guessing because his physical presence has shifted so much over the decades. He used to be a massive figure—both in personality and literal physical scale. These days, he’s lean, almost wiry. That change in weight often messes with our depth perception.
Let’s get the hard numbers out of the way first. Al Sharpton stands at 5 feet 10 inches tall. He’s not a giant. He’s not short either. He’s basically the definition of average American male height. But "average" is the last word anyone would use to describe the Reverend.
The Optical Illusion of the New Al Sharpton
If you look at photos of Sharpton from the 1980s or 90s, he looked different. Way different. Back then, he was pushing 300 pounds. When you have that kind of bulk, especially paired with the iconic, voluminous James Brown-style hair and those thick tracksuits, you take up a lot of "visual real estate." People tended to remember him as being bigger than he actually was.
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Then came the transformation.
Around 2006, Sharpton decided he was done with the "fried chicken junkie" lifestyle. He dropped an incredible amount of weight—going from about 305 pounds down to 129 pounds at his lowest. That’s a loss of over 170 pounds. When you lose more than half your body weight, your height starts to look different to the naked eye.
Suddenly, that 5'10" frame looked stretched out. He looked taller because he was so thin. It’s a classic trick of the eye. Without the horizontal width, the vertical height pops more.
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How He Compares to Other Public Figures
Height is always relative. You don't really know how tall someone is until they're standing next to someone else whose height is a known factor.
- Barack Obama: The former President is about 6'1". When Sharpton stands next to him, there’s a noticeable three-inch gap. Sharpton has to look up just a bit.
- Jesse Jackson: Another titan of the movement, Jackson is roughly 6'2". Sharpton has always seemed like the "younger, smaller" protege in that pairing, and the numbers back it up.
- Martin Luther King Jr.: For historical context, Dr. King was only about 5'7". So, Rev. Al actually would have stood a few inches taller than the man whose legacy he works to uphold.
It's kinda funny how we perceive power as height. We want our leaders to be tall. We expect them to loom. But Sharpton’s 5'10" stature proves you don't need to be a basketball player to command a room or a national television audience.
The Secret to Staying "Small"
People always ask how he stays so thin at 71 years old (as of 2026). It’s not magic. It’s actually kind of intense. He’s famously said he doesn't eat much throughout the day—often sticking to a very strict regimen of fruit, juice, and maybe some fish or whole wheat toast.
He basically traded the "big" persona for the "long" persona.
Staying at 129–140 pounds on a 5'10" frame is lean. Very lean. Some doctors have even expressed concern in the past about him being too thin, but Sharpton insists he has more energy now than he ever did when he was carrying the extra weight. He’s fast. He’s mobile. He can still march for miles when younger activists are looking for a place to sit down.
Why the Height Question Still Matters
In the world of SEO and celebrity gossip, people search for height because they want to humanize the people they see on screen. We want to know if we could take them in a fight or if we’d feel intimidated meeting them at a coffee shop.
Knowing how tall is Al Sharpton helps bridge that gap between the "TV personality" and the actual human being living in New York. He’s a guy who wears a size 38 or 40 jacket and stands just a bit taller than the average man on the subway.
The next time you see him on PoliticsNation, remember that the camera adds ten pounds but it doesn't add any inches. He’s 5'10", he’s probably hungry, and he’s definitely not slowing down.
To get a better sense of how height impacts public perception, you might want to look into how camera angles are used in news studios to make hosts appear more authoritative. You can also compare Sharpton's biometric data to other civil rights leaders by checking archived physical records from the National Action Network's early press releases.