Sharpton, 69, said in an interview that Gay’s resignation after weeks of intense criticism is a sign of the broader dangers facing diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the US. Her resignation is “a blow to the DEI movement that all of us in the civil rights community have been fighting for,” he said, adding that he sees the fight as “bigger than just her.”

Gay stepped down this week, leaving her brief tenure as Harvard’s first Black president, after furor over both plagiarism allegations and her handling of antisemitism on campus. In an essay in the New York Times on Wednesday, she wrote that she’d made mistakes but that the campaign against her – in which Ackman was a vocal participant – “was about more than one university and one leader.”

By noon on Thursday, more than two dozen protesters, some holding placards, marched in a ring outside the Manhattan office of Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund Ackman founded. Their chants of “No justice, no peace,” and “If we don’t get it, shut it down,” echoed down the block. Ackman was nowhere to be seen, having posted on X that he would be out of the country.

Smith Georges, 67, a New York resident from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, said at the protest that he felt frustrated to see Gay — who is the daughter of Haitian immigrants — reach such a prestigious position only to have it end so swiftly.

“They’re so quick to bring her down,” he said. 

Another attendee, activist Gwen Carr, said she’d met Gay at an event at Harvard in September.

“I feel disappointed that they targeted her,” Carr said of Gay’s exit.

Targeting DEI

Gay’s critics, including Ackman, have claimed that her appointment last year was a result of DEI hiring efforts at the school, and used the opportunity to call for the end of diversity initiatives both in academia and at private companies, claiming the practice in itself is discriminatory. Ackman wrote in a lengthy post on X on Wednesday that Harvard’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging should be shut and its staff fired, while the social media platform’s owner Elon Musk wrote that DEI is “not merely immoral, it is also illegal.”

Their criticism comes as the same conservative activists who helped gut race-related college admissions at the US Supreme Court turn their focus to corporate diversity programs. Legal activist Edward Blum and advocacy group Do No Harm have sued companies from law firm Morrison & Foerster to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., challenging fellowship programs designed to recruit people from underrepresented groups. 

America First Legal – founded by Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump — has lodged complaints against more than 20 companies, arguing that their efforts to hire and promote more women and people of color amount to discrimination. The court’s ruling last June, which ruled against affirmative action on college campuses, didn’t cover businesses.

“The reason that we need DEI is because we had ‘D-E-N-Y,’” Sharpton said Thursday. “We were denied the ability to get certain positions, to get contracts, to get jobs. So to act like we don’t need DEI is to whitewash the history of corporate America.”

Gay had faced fierce criticism after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and European Union. She’d been condemned for not speaking out after more than 30 student groups blamed Israel solely for the violence, and after a House hearing on antisemitism during which she didn’t confirm that calls for genocide against Jews were a violation of university policy.

Gay had also been accused of plagiarism in her academic work, including new allegations published this week in the Washington Free Beacon. 

Ackman wrote on X that he would be “delighted to sit with Mr. Sharpton and discuss any concerns he might have about anything I have said or done in connection with” Harvard and Gay. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. 

Sharpton said he is planning to set up a call with fellow civil rights leaders, particularly Black women, to discuss whether a meeting would make sense.

“If they feel it is productive and not some grandstanding, then we’ll be open to it,” Sharpton said.