Percy Sutton
"Percy Sutton started it all. We at Radio One aspired to emulate Percy and Inner City Broadcasting, as did any blackbroadcaster of any size and scale."

-Alfred Liggins
CEO, Radio One
November 24, 1920

The spectacular legacy of Black broadcasting legend Percy E. Sutton began November 24, 1920 in San Antonio, TX. It was the birth of this last and fifteenth Sutton that would register the Suttons as eminent members of the broadcast radio community and purveyors of what would eventually become the "Urban Contemporary" sound in the African-American "listener" experience.

Sutton demonstrated the marks of an over-achiever and distinguished citizen as a teen. Among the most notable of his blossoming prowess was Sutton's attainment of the Boy Scouts of America's highest "Eagle Scout" rank, at age sixteen. Sutton believes his early scouting experience "was a key factor" in shaping his life. And perhaps it is this initial achievement that was the portent of the grit, fortitude and indomitable spirit that would pave the way for Sutton's extraordinary future achievements.

Zealous for educational accomplishment, Sutton attended three American "HBCU's" or "Historically Black Colleges and Universities;" namely those of Prairie View A&M, then Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes and later, Columbia University's School of Law. The enterprising and adventurous Sutton pursued aviator skills and after acquiring them, earned money as a county fair stunt pilot. Soon thereafter he enlisted in the military's U.S. Air Corp. during WWII where he'd gain notoriety as a member of America's first African-American fighter group, the famed "Tuskegee Airmen." Sutton flew "sorties" missions with the 99th Pursuit Squadron during the Allied Invasion of Sicily in 1943 and then continued his military pursuits during the Korean War as a distinguished D.C. intelligence officer and trial judge advocate – the first African-American to serve in that branch of service.

Sutton left the military arena and pursued his law degree at New York's Brooklyn College School of Law. The ambitious Sutton jostled jobs as a postal worker, train conductor and waiter until landing his law degree and passing the state bar in 1951. That same year, Sutton joined his brother Judge Oliver C. Sutton and George Covington to form a law partnership on Harlem's famed 125th Street. It was this new beginning that would make the former WWII captain and combat-star decorated vet a fixture in Black America's battle for equal rights. Sutton and his new partnership represented many civil rights cases, "free of charge" with Sutton acting as a 'Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee' consultant and later, counsel to some of the Civil Rights' era's most influential activists and icons like Malcolm X and African American champion rights organization, the NAACP.

Sutton himself served as a leader-member of the NAACP and was successively elected President of its New York Branch in 1961 and 1962. Sutton's leadership positions at the NAACP put him front and center of America's turbulent '60's period not only as an advocate and adviser, but as a hands on campaigner as he took part in civil rights sit-ins and was included among those called the "Mississippi Freedom Riders," a group of Civil Rights activists who rode segregated buses in the South to deliberately defy local and state Jim Crow Laws.

Sutton's experiences as an aide and abettor to those needing help during the Civil Rights struggle served as a powerful platform for his foray into New York City politics. Sutton won election to the New York State Assembly in 1964 where he became spokesperson for the assembly's thirteen member Black Caucus. And when Manhattan Borough President Constance Baker Motley left her position for a federal judgeship in 1966, the New York City Council tapped Sutton to fill Motley's remaining term. The momentum and favor that cinched Sutton's successive NAACP branch elections governed the tide in the formal elections for his New York Borough President run as well. Sutton won the seat by an overwhelming 80% majority to fill an eleven year term from 1966-1977 as "the highest elected African-American official in the state."

The formation of Sutton's stellar "Inner City Broadcasting Corporation" would come in 1971 when Pierre Sutton, Hal Jackson, Clarence B. Jones and a handful of influential African-American investors came together to partner the vision. ICBC brought WLlB radio a year later and Sutton made New York history again as owner and operator of the city's first black-owned radio station. In 1974 he purchased  WLlB sister WBLS-FM, which would eventually become one of the nation's top-ranked  radio stations and home to the broadcast brand of the classic "adult urban contemporary sound" with inimitable personalities like Frankie Crocker and "Quiet Storm" vet Vaughn Harper. During the 1980's Sutton's Inner City Broadcasting Corporation continued its investments with venues connected to the African-American community and other media to form ventures with the Time Warner Company and the famous Apollo Theater for its subsequent production of the "It's Showtime at the Apollo" television program.

Despite Sutton's numerous achievements inside the broadcast and emerging technology industries, Sutton stayed true to his civic, political and humanitarian associations. Sutton and granddaughter Keisha accompanied Rev. Jesse Jackson to Africa on a diplomatic mission in 1987 and served as Reverend Jackson's presidential campaign advisor during Jackson's '84 and '88 presidential campaigns. Sutton's been credited during this period with "establishing trade and commercial ties between the United States and the Caribbean" and during the '90's, he co-founded and chaired the "African Continental Telecommunications Ltd (ACTEL). In 1995 he was selected by the late former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown to represent the United States at the G-7 roundtable meeting on Telecommunications and High Technology.

With Sutton's relegating of the ICBC reigns to son Pierre and daughter Cheryl in 1991, the ICBC Holdings Corp. expanded under Chairman Pierre to include sagacious broadcast executives Charles Warfield, Skip Finley and in 2004, Deon Levingston for continued flagship station notoriety in New York City, and extensive corporate holdings success throughout the nation. ICBC has expanded its operations to 19 stations across seven top ranked markets and has since linked its commercial ties to business behemoths like NBC, General Electric and Hewlett Packard in its positioning as an acquisitions entity.

Percy Sutton's "Emeritus" status with his ICBC Broadcast Holdings Corp. has in no way diminished the elder Sutton's endowment as a Black broadcasting 'founding father.' Alfred Liggins, CEO of black media conglomerate Radio One says, "Percy Sutton started it all. We at Radio One aspired to emulate Percy and Inner City Broadcasting, as did any black broadcaster of any size and scale." Broadcaster's Foundation Chairman Phil Lombardo calls the Sutton family a "family of historic proportion in the broadcasting industry" and Percy Sutton's "inspiration" a" … beacon of innovation, leadership, activism and commitment. .. "

ICBC founder and emeritus Percy Ellis Sutton, broadcast pioneer and business, civic and humanitarian trailblazer, has indeed come a long way since his days in his father's cornfields in San Antonio, TX. Sutton has made significant contributions to every sector of purposeful human endeavor, whether historical, economic, political or entertaining. And society's accolades of the elder statesman confirm them. Sutton's been awarded the Congressional Black Congress and NAACP "Springarn Medal" awards, as well as industry MOBE "Marketing Opportunities in Business and Entertainment" and Broadcasters Foundation "Golden Mike" awards. The august entrepreneur admits "we've got further to go," and believes the basis of his family's success and civic contributions stem from the familial notion that the "the least of us are important to the most of us."

Inner City Broadcasting Corporation employees and "staff family" are proud to be part of the noble legacy of ICBC founder Percy E. Sutton and the Sutton broadcast heritage.