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The Rev. Al Sharpton said today that the black community cannot be vigilant in Ferguson, Mo., after an officer-involved shooting killed a black teen, but calm in the aftermath of the officer-involved shooting at a Beavercreek Walmart that killed a 22-year-old Fairfield man.

Sharptons remarks about the death of John Crawford III came at the tail end of his 20-minute address to the Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce this afternoon on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. It was the first of two public speaking engagements the civil rights leader has today in southwest Ohio. Sharpton will be speaking at an open community forum at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Paul Robeson Cultural & Performing Arts Center at Central State University.

Sharpton gave just a passing mention to the Beavercreek Walmart shooting during his Cincinnati speech, though he might say more during his evening address at Central State. A spokeswoman for his organization, the National Action Network, said Sharpton has been following the case closely and will address it.

Sharpton told the 400 men and women in the Great Hall at UCs Tangeman University Center that youth in the black community have forgotten their foundation.

Using the metaphor of a memory card within a cellphone if it was wiped clean, people today would be lost Sharpton said the black community has collectively lost its way, lost its memory. And dealing without a foundation of ones past, Sharpton said, You have been disconnected from the memory of what you were.

The way they have maneuvered and manipulated us in a condition of powerlessness is they have erased our memory and they have fooled the young generation that the enemy is the old school, said Sharpton, the host of PoliticsNation on MSNBC and the nationally syndicated radio show Keepin it Real.

Sharpton called for those in attendance at the luncheon at the African American Chambers 14th Annual Business to Business Exchange to make noise as we do not organize in our communities.

At the end of the day, who cares if we have more people with titles if we have no increase of the level of living in our communities, he said. Your title must have a function or your title means nothing to no one.

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Sharpton says the black community needs to remember its foundation