Several Coatesville area residents were Tuskegee Airmen. My friend, former Coatesville City Council Member and Chester County Democrat Ingrid W. Jones is Percy Sutton's niece.
When Ingrid was born she was special as the only girl in the Sutton family. Her Uncle Percy carried Ingrid on his shoulder.
Former President and Hillary Clinton sat behind Ingrid at Percy Sutton’s funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
African American Legends: Percy Sutton
"Percy Sutton was born in San Antonio, Texas, the youngest of fifteen children born to Samuel Johnson ("S.J.") Sutton and his wife, Lillian.
His father, an early civil-rights activist, was one of the first black civil servants a teacher and school administrator in Bexar County, Texas, and used the initials "S.J." for fear his first name, Samuel, would be shortened to Sambo. In addition to being a full-time educator, S.J. farmed, sold real estate and owned a mattress factory, funeral home and skating rink.[2]
Sutton's siblings included G. J. Sutton, who became the first black elected official in San Antonio,[3] and Oliver Sutton, a judge on the New York Supreme Court.
At age twelve, Percy stowed away on a passenger train to New York City, where he slept under a sign on 155th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of the city. His oldest sister, Lillian Sutton Taylor, who was 20 years his senior, was attending Columbia Teacher's College at the time. His oldest brother, John Sutton, a food scientist who had studied under George Washington Carver, and also in Russia, was living in New York at the time Percy arrived there.
His family was committed to civil rights, and he bristled at racism. At age thirteen, while passing out leaflets in an all-white neighborhood for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he was beaten by a policeman.
He joined the Boy Scouts of America and attained the rank of Eagle Scout in 1936 and was recognized with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award as an adult. Sutton stated that scouting was a key factor in shaping his life.[4] Percy and Leatrice Sutton married in 1943. He later took up stunt-flying on the barnstorming circuit, but gave it up after a friend crashed.
During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer with the Tuskegee Airmen – the popular name of a group of African American pilots who flew with distinction during World War II as the 332nd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces. He won combat stars in the Italian and Mediterranean theaters.
Sutton attended [clarification needed] Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas; the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama; and the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia without receiving a degree. He went on to attend Columbia Law School and Brooklyn Law School, ultimately receiving his LL.B. from the latter institution in 1950.[2][5] Shortly thereafter, he was admitted to the New York bar.
Legal career
During the 1950s and 1960s, Sutton became one of America's best-known lawyers. He represented many controversial figures, such as Malcolm X. After the murder of Malcolm X in 1965, Sutton and his brother Oliver helped to cover the expenses of his widow, Betty Shabazz.[citation needed]
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