It was standing room only in the uppermost region of the Riverside Church for the homegoing service of Percy Ellis Sutton. Giving the Personal Tribute, Reverend Jesse Jackson said, “The tallest tree in our forest has fallen,” calling Sutton an authentic Renaissance Man. He spoke of how “The Chairman” had stood with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela. “He left more than he found.”
In a statement videotaped earlier at the church, Governor Paterson said that more than a media mogul and entrepreneur, that Percy was a leader, teacher, mentor and friend. Sutton was steadfast and disciplined and “He was the first person to advise me about my vision, the first person to suggest I run for office,” and he “gave correction in such a way that you’d think it was a compliment.” (This was later amended by Inez Dickens, who assured everyone that Sutton could also correct you in a way such that you knew you were corrected.) Paterson made the case that without the life of Percy Sutton, he would not be governor now.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that Sutton’s “greatest accomplishment was his own life. He took his destiny in his own hands.” Listing Sutton’s accomplishments, Bloomberg said he made Black radio a fixture in New York, saved the Apollo Theater, Charles Rangel became a congressman, David Dinkins became mayor and Paterson became Governor. The mayor announced that the cluster of schools on Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem will be named the Percy Ellis Sutton Educational Complex. “He made a difference,” concluded the mayor.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that, “The opportunities my generation have been given are possible because of the work” of Sutton’s generation and acknowledged that he stands on Sutton’s “still-broad shoulders.”
An interview of Sutton was shown and he recounted that he “could not get a Black professional to come to a meeting” with Malcolm X. He said that he had to learn that he “could not go frontally” when confronted with obstacles, but “had to go in from the sides.”
Congressman Charles Rangel apologized to the family, saying of his mentor and friend, “We treated Percy like we owned him. I called him like I was calling home.” He recounted how special it was to Mr. Sutton when someone came up to him on the street and said, “God bless you Percy Sutton.” “And this is what Percy was all about.”
The congressman challenged the assembled saying as long as someone is without, then it is the obligation of those who knew Percy to offer help. He also gave them hope saying “there is a little bit of Percy in each of us,” and that as he leaves to meet with the president, there will be that little bit of Percy coming to Washington with him.
Melba Moore sang “Amazing Grace” and Stevie Wonder said he was “Happy for the family that you had such a king in your life,” and then sang an amazing “I’ll be Loving You Always.”
In the Family Remembrances, nephew Charles Andrews said he spoke with Leatrice, Mr. Sutton’s wife of sixty-six years, she was angry saying, “He left me.” He assured Leatrice that “You are his window. Through your eyes he sees, through your heart he loves.” He said that when he had recently seen his uncle, Sutton had told him to tell Leatrice, “Smile, and remember when.”
Granddaughter Keisha Sutton-James said her grandfather was larger than life. “He was my hero. By example, he taught me how to love.” She added later, “When I would walk into the room, he’d give me a standing ovation. How important was that to this little Black girl?”
Daughter Cheryl spoke of the tradition of Sutton making soup after Thanksgiving. “People may forget what you say, and forget what you do, but they never forget how you made them feel.”
Malcolm X’s daughter Atallah Shabazz said, “How blessed we are that Percy touched our lives.” She spoke of how when others kept away from Malcolm and the family, “Percy chose to stand nearby.”
“I could not be what I am today without Mr. Sutton. I will be an example of your majesty by any means necessary.”
Walter Edwards remembered, “A man for all seasons who looked past what a man was and could see what he could be.” Percy was Black and Proud before James Brown said it and understood the responsibility of a proud man.
Clarence Jones gave a moving remembrance of Sutton calling Jones’ hospital and guaranteeing payment of an expensive medical procedure. “Good-by my audaciously proud brother.”
Roscoe C. Brown, Jr. said he knew Sutton since their days together as Tuskeegee Airmen attached to the 332nd Fighter Group. Sutton was the intelligence officer and Brown said his flourishes in reporting the missions for citations “made heroes out of us.”
Mayor David Dinkins had to stop and compose himself several times as he spoke of “We three, who were once the ‘Gang of Four’,” referring to Basil Paterson, Percy Sutton, Charles Rangel and himself. He was one of the most dedicated, dynamic and determined individuals to be met, said Dinkins. He also mentioned that one of the most important elements of Sutton’s walk from his home was someone coming up to him and saying, “God bless you Percy Sutton.” He was our inspiration and our guiding force. “Then we were four, now we are three.”
Dinkins said to remember that “Apples did not fall from the tree, they were shaken by our ancestors. Had there been not Chairman Sutton, there would have been no Mayor Dinkins.”
Basil Paterson knew Percy as a friend and a Renaissance man. He rebuilt 125th Street. He was fiercely loyal and always there for the underdog.
Reverend Al Sharpton gave the Eulogy and spoke of Sutton, who even as a multi-millionaire, laid down in front of One Police Plaza for Amadu Diallo, “AWest African boy he never knew.”
“Percy knew he was a giant but too many around him had grasshopper complexes. Percy invested in a community that didn’t even believe in itself.”
“He did not let America change him, he changed America.” “A hundred years from now they will celebrate Percy Sutton, a man who dreamed dreams and made them come true. He made little people feel important. He made us feel important.”
Sharpton ended with a story of how Mr. Sutton had come to his support at a critical time, and had held up a picture of the reverend and said “I am Al Sharpton.” Speaking of how the Chairman’s spirit will live on, Sharpton held up a picture of Mr. Sutton, saying, “I am Percy Sutton.”
David Mark Greaves
A Chairman’s Uplifting Homegoing
TWO FRIENDS, TWO JOURNEYS, ONE BIRTHDATE
1925 was a very good year for milestones: The Harlem Renaissance was in swing; Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington produced their first recordings; the first working television was invented; Civil Rights icons Malcolm X and Medgar Evers were born; the first potato chip factory opened, thanks to African-American pre-Civil War chef George Crum; A. Philip Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Pullman Sleeping Car Porters; the popular song “Sweet Georgia Brown” was composed; and on December 16 of that year, in Cairo, Georgia, “City of Hospitality,” Grace and Arch Weatherspoon gave birth to Jane Lee Weatherspoon (“Janilee”) and, in Asheville, N.C., “Land of the Sky,” Macon and Gertrude Roseboro welcomed Alma Roseboro.
Infants Alma and Janie shared more than a birthdate. They were destined to marry jazz lovers, Joe “Bebop” Carroll (Alma) and Daniel Cal Green (Janie); live within two blocks of each other; help shape Central Brooklyn’s antipoverty programs of the ’60s; and become outspoken Bedford-Stuyvesant community organizers and education activists.
At 84, they are still determined and fighting. Pictured inside this issue are Ms. Alma Carroll at her rousing afternoon birthday celebration with Jitu Weusi, the nationally known educator, community organizer and founder of Brooklyn Jazz Consortium, inside Herbert Von King Park’s Cultural Arts Center. (at left).
And Mrs. Janie Green regales guests at a family-hosted Sunday church buffet and dancing birthday celebration, with U.S. Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (NY-10), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and his wife, educator Gwendolyn Forbes Towns at Eleanor Roosevelt Houses’ 400 Hart Street Community Center.
Currently, Mrs. Carroll, working with community organizer Sydney Moshette Jr. of the Oldtimers Foundation, is committed to naming the amphitheater in Herbert Von King Park after the late educator Almira Coursey, who was instrumental in introducing Mrs. Green to Mrs. Carroll in 1965 at the then-newborn Bedford-Stuyvesant Youth-in-Action program. These pioneers were longtime board members of Community Board #3.
Also, their late husbands Joe, the jazz great, and Danny, the jazz buff and collector, were close – if not best – friends.
There was another milestone in 1925: Countee Cullen, sometimes quoted by Mrs. Green, published Color, his first volume of verse. That year, he wrote the following excerpted from I Have a Rendezvous with Life.
.
I have a rendezvous with Life,
In days I hope will come,
Ere youth has sped, and strength of mind,
Ere voices sweet grow dumb.
I have a rendezvous with Life,
When Spring’s first heralds hum.
Birthday well-wishers to both women included Assemblywoman Annette Robinson, Councilman Al Vann, Hon. Jim Sullivan, Rev. Taharka Robinson, Sydney Moshette Jr. and scores of other friends and community leaders.
-Bernice Elizabeth Green
Sutton: He Set The Standard
Percy Sutton set the standard for how to be and was the embodiment of excellence in everything he did. I was part of a film crew interviewing Mr. Sutton in the mid-1980’s and two things he said have stayed with me. He spoke about persistence saying that it took him sixty-two presentations of his business plan, and I forget if it was for a license or a loan, but the lesson was, if you know it’s right, keep at it. And teaching also about initiative and goal-setting, he said that if he were stripped of everything, and here he waved around his wonderful old office of wood and forest green, and he said if he were stripped of everything, he would build it again, starting by making and bagging cookies, and selling them on the street.
Percy Sutton was self-made style, class and a whole lot of smart, funny and smooth as silk. Someone on the crew at the time may even had said, “That brother is smooth.” If so, it would have been met with unanimous agreement. The next we saw him was at his L.A. station, where in a room of cool cats, in came Mr. Sutton, the coolest cat in the room. If Fred Astaire were a Black businessman, he’d be Percy Sutton. He was then, and as I later learned, always immaculately dressed. Both David Dinkins and Charlie Rangel speak of him as a mentor, and you can see it in their attire and how they conduct themselves, having had before them the gold standard to model after.
Percy Sutton was a Race man. He continually sought to empower African-Americans, in his politics, his businesses and the stands he took on social issues. Percy Sutton’s biography tells the story of the extraordinary life of a purposeful man. An African-American whose lifework empowered his people and set an example of what to aspire to for those who met him.
When you’ve seen a life lived like this, then you know it is true, the blood of kings runs in our veins. David Mark Greaves