Bill and Hillary Clinton sat behind former Coatesville City Councilperson Ingrid Jones at Percy Sutton's funeral service at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, Manhattan.

Percy Sutton carried little Ingrid Woods on his shoulders at the Sutton home in Texas. At the time Ingrid was the only girl in the Sutton family.

“U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder described Sutton as “a man who combined equal measure of intelligence, passion, commitment, courage and style.”  

“The opportunities that my generation has been given were paid for by his hard work and sacrifice," he said. "Without him, there would be no me.”Holder read a statement from President Obama and his wife, Michelle, in which they called Sutton “a master of the law, a savvy businessman, and tireless champion of the city.” 

Melba Moore sang "Amazing Grace." Stevie Wonder, who flew overnight to make the service, sang “I’ll Be Loving You Always” while changing one line for Sutton: “Percy will be loving us always.”

All of this was in tribute to a man born in the Jim Crow south who came of age in 1950s Harlem, and was elected Manhattan borough president. He served as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II and was a civil rights freedom rider who challenged racial segregation laws that denied blacks the right to use public facilities, like restaurants and hotels. He became Malcolm X’s lawyer and assumed the role of friend and guardian of Betty Shabazz and her family after her husband was assassinated. 

He became a media mogul with his acquisition of New York radio stations WLIB and WBLS. In the 1980s, his broadcasting company bought the bankrupt Apollo Theater and oversaw its renovation and reopening.
In the eulogy, the Rev. Al Sharpton talked about Sutton not as a media mogul or millionaire, but as a man who put his life in danger for causes he believed in, and whose dreams inspired Harlem. 

"We are here because he invested in a community that didn't believe in itself," Sharpton said. 

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Percy Sutton Honored at Funeral as Harlem Weeps

The Sutton family might be the most powerful & influential black family in the Americas. 

Percy Sutton was a Tuskegee Airman intelligence officer in World War II in Europe.

Those Tuskegee Airmen: