Rev. Al Sharpton, the most significant black leader in America today, did something very important over the last several days. He opened the door of black political life to independent politics. And he helped me put the heat on the independent movement to open its doors to black America.

On Saturday, he brought Dr. John Hagelin, the independent presidential candidate running on the Independence Party ticket in New York, whom I am supporting, to address his weekly meeting of the National Action Network. In his remarks, Rev. Sharpton said of me, "Dr. Fulani is the founder of independent politics. She did it before Perot or anybody. Do not let them profile Dr. Fulani out of that role!"

Later, after John Hagelin addressed the 250-person crowd, Sharpton went on to caution the black community against allowing themselves to be taken for granted. "They asked me how can you have the independents come?" he said. "First of all, I am an independent black man. Second ... we are talking about saving our people. I could care less about hurting politicians' feelings."

I recounted for the audience (many of whom were people I'd marched with time and again to protest racial murder and police brutality) that I had been working hard to build a bridge between the independent political movement and the black community. Some white independent leaders have been responsive to me -- John Hagelin, in particular. Some -- like Ralph Nader -- have not.

This concern -- about whether and about how the independents come into the black community -- is something that Rev. Sharpton and I have discussed for years, with increased intensity in the last several months. I have raised the issue of Nader's reticence about coming into Harlem in a New York media campaign. Nader, as I pointed out, has run a campaign geared primarily to the white left. That is why he is at only 5 percent in the polls even though 35-40 percent of Americans say they consider themselves independents, 53 percent in a new Gallup poll say they'd like to see a major third party and 30 million have voted for an independent presidential candidate in recent years. Nader did not reach out to the Perot vote (we probably should update that term now that Ross Perot has exited the independent political scene). He turned down an invitation from Gov. Jesse Ventura to participate in a debate among independent presidential candidates. And he turned his back on me and my invitation to come to Harlem.

Rev. Sharpton was well aware of Nader's rejection of my overtures and his reticence to reach out to African Americans. At the same time he was also chilled by the disinterest (actually disdain) on the part of leading Democrats like Al Gore and Hillary Clinton -- both of whom were giving him a profoundly cold shoulder. After a meeting with me, Hagelin and vice presidential running mate Nat Goldhaber -- Rev. Sharpton issued a call for a presidential debate on black issues in Harlem. He extended an invitation to Gore, Governor George Bush, Hagelin and Nader. Only Hagelin agreed to come. Meanwhile, stories began to circulate that Nader was not only avoiding the black community and me -- he was also avoiding Sharpton.

Nader's "whites mainly" campaign was becoming more and more of an embarrassment to the African American progressives who were supporting him. Randall Robinson, President of the TransAfrica Forum, organized a "sit down" between Nader and a group of black progressives -- a number of whom are ardent Gore supporters -- to try to take the edge off of Nader's elitism. Of course, the diehard Democrats in that circle simply used Nader's racial recalcitrance to try to score points for Gore, trying to make the case that a vote for Nader would hurt the black cause by costing Gore the election. But rationalizing a black vote for Gore and the Democratic Party is not the purpose of any serious black critique of Nader. Independent politics must be put to work for the black community, to help it break its dependency on the Democratic Party. Nader's failure is that he has not done that.

Finally, Randall Robinson -- no doubt feeling the heat from the mounting criticism of Nader -- reached out to Sharpton on Nader's behalf. The result was an "11th hour" appearance by Nader the day before the election at a Harlem meeting hosted by Sharpton.

Though it's a severe case of too little, very late, a point has nonetheless been made. Insofar as the Nader campaign has succeeded in drawing large-scale participation by the left into the independent political movement, the necessity of connecting with black America is all the more urgent. It's one thing for the center-right George Bush supporter Ross Perot to turn down my overture to campaign in Harlem (though he shouldn't have!). It's quite another for Ralph Nader, left-winger and self-described catalyst for a new progressive movement to turn me down.

And what of Rev. Sharpton? He helped me put the heat on Nader. He told the black community it needed to broaden its political options. He instructed, "I will not compromise my self-respect. It is bad enough for them to marginalize us. It is worse for us to agree to it."

And with that, and many years of very hard work, we have the beginning of a new politic for black America.