From renter to owner, Sharpton locks in National Action Network's Harlem foothold for the long haul

NEW YORK (AP) — The Rev. Al Sharpton’s staff and advisers stood around him just outside the doors of a cozy theater, where some of his most fervent supporters waited to greet him in the newly renovated headquarters of the National Action Network.

When doors flung open, Sharpton entered to a standing ovation that continued until he was perched behind a lectern, on a stage decorated with a floor-to-ceiling video screen.

The audience was not anticipating a call for justice. Instead, the rabble-rousing youth minister turned go-to national advocate was there to declare his organization was officially an owner, no longer a renter, in the historically Black Harlem neighborhood it has called home for more than two decades.

“I want to make something permanent,” Sharpton said recently to the gathered crowd of NAN board members, local clergy and other allies. “When people see that you’ve bought a building, they say, ‘Wait a minute, they’re not going nowhere.’”

NAN’s new permanent home is the former Faison Firehouse Theater on Hancock Place, near the intersection of 124th Street and Manhattan Avenue. George Faison, a Tony Award-winning choreographer known for his work in the original 1970s Broadway staging of “The Wiz,” had bought the firehouse in 1999 and converted it into a community theater.

When Faison had a choice between selling the former firehouse in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood to a large developer or selling it to NAN, he chose the latter, according to Sharpton.

“I’m 71 years old — if I was just trying to do it as an Al Sharpton personal fan club, I could just keep renting,” Sharpton told The Associated Press during an interview in his new private office, with large windows overlooking central Harlem.

“I’m buying it to show I want this to be an institution. I want it to last beyond me.”

Although the renovation is structurally complete and its rooms are functional, Sharpton said he expects his weekly Saturday rallies to resume in the new headquarters this summer.

Founded in 1991, NAN began meeting at P.S. 175, a Manhattan elementary school, during the tenure of the late David Dinkins, New York City’s first Black mayor. Next, NAN rented a space at 125th Street and Madison Avenue. In 2006, Sharpton moved NAN into a rented space at 145th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, where it operated until January.

NAN's headquarters had been named the “House of Justice” by his late mentor, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

Often organizing from his Harlem headquarters, Sharpton became known staging direct-action protests on behalf of Black men killed, brutalized or persecuted by police in New York City: Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, the exonerated men formerly known as the Central Park Five, and Eric Garner, among others.

“Harlem means home,” Sharpton told the AP.

The new NAN headquarters now carries the name “House of Justice Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Workshop,” following the multimillion dollar purchase and renovation of its five floors. Sharpton said he will invite artists to hold salons, poetry readings and jazz nights, as a callback to the Black cultural and intellectual movement of the Harlem Renaissance.

Looking out at his supporters during the invite-only reception for the new space, Sharpton reflected not just on the NAN’s past, but on the current cultural and political environment.

“We are in trouble,” he said in reference to redistricting fights set off by a recent Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act and the rolling back of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“We don’t have, in my opinion, the luxury of not nailing down and working together,” Sharpton said.

Over the years, the NAN headquarters has become a “can’t skip” campaign stop for Democratic candidates seeking everything from the presidency and Congress to state and local offices. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the House of Justice is typically standing room only for the dignitaries who show up.

After the death of his childhood hero James Brown in 2006, the horse drawn carriage carrying the Godfather of Soul’s golden casket stopped outside NAN’s 145th Street headquarters.

The organization’s weekly Saturday rallies have also been a venue for families grieving loss through police violence, or for celebrities to speak out and unfairness in the entertainment industry.

Ashley Sharpton, the youngest of the reverend’s two daughters, grew up around the House of Justice. She and her older sister, Dominique Sharpton-Bright, were there on the day the late pop icon Michael Jackson visited and spoke at the invitation of their dad.

“The magic was palpable,” Ashley recalled.

Now, as founder and director of NAN’s youth initiatives, Ashley feels deeper stake in the organization’s future.

“It’s time for us to step in and take ownership, literally, of what is needed to maintain the legacy, and to continue the fight,” she told the AP.

Morrison is AP’s race and ethnicity news editor.

The Rev. Al Sharpton shakes hands with National Action Network (NAN) board members and other invited guests at an event welcoming people to the new location of the NAN House of Justice on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/Anna Connors)

FILE - First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers her speech at the National Action Network's Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Public Policy Forum as, from left, Assemblyman Keith Wright, Rev. Al Sharpton, and State Senator David Paterson look on Monday, Jan. 17, 2000, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Rev. Al Sharpton, right, and Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, left, speak during the National Action Network's Saturday action rally at House of Justice in Harlem, Saturday, June 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

FILE - The casket of singer James Brown is placed in a horse drawn carriage before it is carried through the streets of Harlem in New York, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006. Among those observing is Al Sharpton, lower left. (W.A. Bridges Jr./Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

FILE - Singer Michael Jackson, right, speaks to the crowd at Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network headquarters, Saturday, July 6, 2002 in Harlem, New York, as Rev. Sharpton, left, listens. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin, File)

The Rev. Al Sharpton poses for a portrait in his office at the new location of the National Action Network (NAN) House of Justice on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/Anna Connors)

The Rev. Al Sharpton poses for a portrait at his desk in the new location of the National Action Network (NAN) House of Justice on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/Anna Connors)

National Action Network (NAN) Board Chairman Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson welcomes people to the new location of the NAN House of Justice on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/Anna Connors)

The outside of the new location of the National Action Network (NAN) House of Justice is pictured on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/Anna Connors)

FILE - The Rev. Al Sharpton, center, is joined by Eric Garner's mother Gwen Carr, left, daughter Erica Garner, second from left, son Eric Garner, third from left, daughter Emerald Snipes, second from right, and wife Esaw Snipes, as he speaks during a news conference, Tuesday, July 14, 2015, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

The Rev. Al Sharpton welcomes people to the new National Action Network (NAN) House of Justice on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/Anna Connors)

PARIS (AP) — France recorded its hottest day ever on Tuesday amid an exceptional early heat wave across Europe, the national weather agency said.

It said France’s national thermal indicator — an average of temperatures measured at 30 weather stations— hit a new record of 29.8 C (85.6 F). The previous record of 29.4°C (84.9°F) dated back to heat waves of August 2003 and July 2019.

Daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) were also recorded in many individual weather stations, Meteo France said.

France has recorded 40 fatalities from drowning in the past week as people seek relief from the searing heat. The national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments, about half the country, under a red heat wave alert.

The heat wave is also hitting other parts of Europe, exposing tens of millions of people to extreme high temperatures. And it's far from over. Italy, Spain, and Britain also have been hit.

Human-caused climate change is tied to increasingly extreme weather, and U.N. climate agency projections say the next five years should shatter more heat records.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that the 40 people who died by drowning since last Thursday were mainly young people.

In a country without widespread air conditioning, schools, public transportation and sporting events have been impacted. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower adjusted its operations to the scorching weather, closing in the afternoon instead of late at night as it usually does. The Louvre museum said it would close two hours earlier than normal from Wednesday through Saturday.

“Although parts of its historic building are naturally resilient, the museum remains vulnerable and is not sufficiently adapted to climate change,” it said. “Heat buildup is greatest toward the end of the day and is further intensified by high visitor numbers.”

Extreme conditions are expected to last at least until the end of the week, with daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many towns.

“Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year,” Meteo France said.

The heat wave is exceptionally intense, coming very early in the summer, “but with a still uncertain duration,” the weather service said. It has already been compared to the August 2003 heat wave, when the highest temperatures in over half a century caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of them among older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of those deaths were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said this month.

The above-average temperatures can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.

Across the English Channel from France, hundreds of British schools say they are shuttering or closing early this week because of expected record heat, while many train services have been reduced to avoid heat-related problems on the rail lines.

The Met Office, the U.K. weather agency, issued a red extreme heat warning for Wednesday and Thursday, with forecasts suggesting June’s all-time daily temperature record could be broken.

Temperatures of around 37 degrees C (98.6 F) are expected in southern England, with up to 35 C (95 F) in southeast Wales. The peak of the heat wave is now forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, when highs could reach 39 C (102.2 F) in London or southern England. Conditions are expected to ease by Friday, the Met Office said.

On Tuesday, multiple train operators across the United Kingdom, including the express train serving London Gatwick Airport, said they were canceling or reducing services this week. Railway operators urged people to “only travel if absolutely necessary” on Wednesday and Thursday.

Further south on the continent, Spain is facing a heat wave across various parts of the Iberian Peninsula.

Spain’s national weather service, Aemet, issued red alerts Tuesday for temperatures of 44 C (111 F) in southern Andalusia as well as warnings of thermometers hitting 40 C (104 F) in the normally temperate Cantabria and the Basque Country regions along its northern Atlantic coast.

Aemet meteorologist Rubén del Campo said Spain, which has experienced increasingly torrid summers of late, is only going to get hotter because of climate change as heatwaves become more frequent, longer and appear outside the traditional window of July and August.

Of the dozen heatwaves Aemet has recorded in June since it started tracking them in 1975, half have occurred since 2015, del Campo said.

Human-driven climate change is heating up the atmosphere, both above Spain and in the surrounding sea waters, he said.

Copernicus, the EU monitoring agency, found that in Europe and globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and the continent experienced its second-highest number of “heat stress” days.

Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.

The name of the body of water between France and the U.K. has been corrected to the “English Channel.”

Associated Press journalists Sylvia Hui in London and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.

People swim in an outdoor swimming pool in London, Tuesday, June 23, 2026 as a heat wave is predicted across Britain.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Tourists use umbrellas to shelter from the sun as they visit the historical Spanish steps in Rome, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A man drinks on Westminster Bridge in London, as a heat wave is predicted Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A man keeps his legs dry as he cycles through standing water in London, as a heat wave is predicted Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

An African penguin cools off in a basin in Kronber zoo, near Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

A man keeps his legs dry as he cycles through standing water in London, as a heat wave is predicted Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

People cool off in a water spray at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

A family walks through a cooling water spray at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

A man shields himself from the sun with a scarf as he walks in the garden of the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris, during a heat wave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Tourists with an umbrella take a photo in Paris, as France is enduring a grueling heat wave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )

A drugstore sign shows the temperature 43 degrees Celsius (109,4 degrees Fahrenheit) in Rennes, western France, Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)