Civil Rights Icon Percy Sutton Dies


Percy Sutton
Percy Sutton

(NNPA) – Percy Sutton, best known outside New York for his involvement in the civil rights movement and founding a communications empire, died on December 26. He was 89.

Sutton was born in San Antonio, Texas, the youngest of 15 children of a former slave and his wife.

According to the New York Times, Sutton received education at three historically Black college or universities , but did not complete a degree at any of those schools. He served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

Although he did not have an undergraduate degree, Sutton was admitted to Columbia Law School through the G.I. Bill and on the merit of his solid undergraduate performances. Because he had to work while attending school, he transferred to Brooklyn Law School. Sutton’s involvement with the civil rights movement included a family involvement with the NAACP that earned him a police beating at age 15. As an attorney, he became an advocate for the cause and longtime attorney for Malcolm X and his family. Sutton was also a politician, and served as Manhattan borough president from 1966 to 1977 and a state assemblyman for one term starting in 1964. “Percy Sutton was a true hero to African Americans in New York City and around the country,” President Obama said in a statement. “His life-long dedication to the fight for civil rights and his career as an entrepreneur and public servant made the rise of countless young African Americans possible.”

He was married three times, twice to Leatrice O’Farrell Sutton, his surviving spouse. He is also survived by a son, Pierre Sutton, and a daughter from his second marriage, Cheryl Lynn Sutton.

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