New York Daily News Editorial: Percy Sutton, 1920-2009

Few are the Americans, few are the New Yorkers, who rise to overcome as Percy Ellis Sutton did. Even fewer are those who leave as profound a stamp as this son of a slave whose determination and deeds said loudly: I am worthy. I am the equalof any man. I can do great things.


It was Sutton who paved the way for a generation of black political leaders who have now become elder statesmen of New York power. Charlie Rangel, risen to be chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; David Dinkins, risen to become the city's first black mayor; Basil Paterson, risen to serve as a deputy mayor and to watch his son become New York's first black governor-all followed in Sutton's footsteps.


And it was Sutton who left electoral politics to become a media magnate at a time when no one had ever heard of such a thing.

He was born in Texas in 1920, the youngest of 15 children. Back then, the African-American experience was defined in so many ways by its limits. Limits that even as a kid, Percy chafed at.


At age 12, he stowed away on a train to Manhattan and started his life as a man.


When the Second World War called, he served his nation beautifully, as a Tuskegee Airman, winning combat stars in two theaters. Remember: The airmen's wings were almost clipped before they soared, simply because they were black.


Then it was back to New York, where the G.I. Bill sent Sutton to law school. Actually, he sent himself, working afternoons at the post office, nights as a subway conductor. In the mornings it was straight to school.


In the 1950's and '60's, Sutton's Harlem law office became a hub of the civil rights movement. He defended those arrested in protests and sit-ins and marches: many whose names have been forgotten, and at least one whose name never will be-Malcolm X.


And Sutton understood that being a man "of the movement" was not inconsistent with being a man of the whole city. He plunged into politics to serve in the Legislature. He represented all of Manhattan as borough president. In 1977, he ran for mayor, in the first contest where a black man's face was secondary to the race he ran.


He stood alongside giants named Koch and Cuomo and Beame and Abzug and Badillo. Sutton lost, but he wasn't through. He built a media empire, brick by brick. At the Amsterdam News. At WLIB, making it the first black-owned radio station in the city. At WBLS. At the Apollo Theater. Inner City Broadcasting Corp. amplified countless voices. Without Sutton, no Charlie Rangel. Without Sutton, no David Dinkins. No David Paterson.


Without Sutton, probably no Barack Obama. Because black politicians would all be black first, leaders second. Which, thank God, they no longer are. Let the young ones put down their video games and hear the stories of those who remember Percy Sutton.


It is a legacy for all Americans to embrace.