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When the Rev. Al Sharpton couldn’t make it to Nelson Mandela ’s funeral in South Africa, President Barack Obama brought him back a little souvenir.

The memento, a program from the funeral, hangs on a wall in Mr. Sharpton’s nondescript offices above Midtown Manhattan.

“To Rev. Sharpton,” Mr. Obama wrote. “A fellow warrior for justice!”

Much has been made of Mr. Sharpton’s reinvention, the remaking of a local, sometimes divisive activist into a polished insider with a national TV show and a direct line to the White House.

Yet, at home in New York City, as tensions simmered last year over race, police conduct, and the deaths of Eric Garner and police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, Mr. Sharpton’s new role has been tested. (Read more about what Obama gave Al Sharpton HERE)