(City Councilman, Leroi Comrie with comedian Bill Cosby on the 'N' word Fight in Feb. '07)

Carson, who died at age 66 in late 2002, was a controversial leader among New York's diverse Black Leadership. In an activist career that spanned the better part of 39 years, Robert Sonny Abubadika Carson has stirred passions. Some call him a villain, racial arsonist and a racist. While others have annoited him to near sainthood, on a par with Malcolm X. Historians have noted that Carson was a key figure in helping to keep New York calm, while other major American cities like Washington, Detroit, Los Angeles and Newark, New Jersey, exploded in race riots and civil unrest in the 1960's. In 1969, then Mayor John V. Lindsey, cited meetings with Carson during the aftermath of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. with keeping the Big Apple cool.