But these days, Sharpton is taking a different route, and instead of agitating protests, he's serving as a contact for the White House, a role he once again played in the Ferguson melee.

"There's a trust factor with The Rev from the Oval Office on down," a White House aide told Politico. "He gets it, and he's got credibility in the community that nobody else has got. There's really no one else out there who does what he does."

After Sharpton met with Brown's family and members of the local community, he connected with White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, who told him the president was "horrified" by the images he was seeing from Ferguson and wanted to know what the Brown family expected from the White House.

While the old Sharpton was avoided, the new Sharpton visits and texts or emails the White House and Obama officials frequently, especially with Attorney General Eric Holder, the first black man to hold that job. Holder, who traveled to Ferguson this week for a probe into the shootings, and Sharpton both say the Ferguson crisis is important to Obama's legacy.

The shift has been a lifelong goal for Sharpton, says the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who in the past was often a rival of Sharpton.