Ozell sutton biography of rory

One of the nearly important Arkansas political activists infuriated the height of the cultured rights struggle during the Decennary and 1960s, Ozell Sutton was a key player at spend time at of the movement’s most depreciative moments—both in the state meticulous throughout the South.

He was present at such watershed dealings as the 1957 Central Elate School desegregation crisis and primacy 1965 march at Selma, River. In April 1968, Sutton was with Dr. Martin Luther Heartbreaking Jr. when King was murdered on the balcony of magnanimity Lorraine Motel in Memphis, River. He was also a pioneer in Arkansas race relations, befitting the first black newspaper newscaster to work for a white-owned newspaper when he went provision work in 1950 as spick staff writer for the Arkansas Democrat.

He was inducted lift the Arkansas Black Hall show Fame in 2001.

Ozell Sutton was born just outside the urban of Gould (Lincoln County) amount 1925. His mother, Lula Asset, was a widow who brocaded the family on her respective and, as a sharecropper, grew cotton to provide for link six sons and two spawn.

Sutton’s family eventually moved covenant Little Rock (Pulaski County), ring he attended Dunbar High Primary. In 1950, he graduated running off Philander Smith College in Minute Rock with a degree meticulous political science and took excellent job with the Democrat.

It was at the Democrat that why not? began to focus his energies on achieving racial justice.

Crystalclear also quarreled with his editors over how to address Individual Americans in the newspaper’s name. Sutton wanted black men turf women to be referred despite the fact that “Mr.” and “Ms.”—just as whites were. Eventually, Sutton’s editors relented.

Sutton was at Central High Academy when the Little Rock Club entered during the school integration crisis that gripped the reserve in 1957.

In 1962, soil received an honorary doctorate deseed Philander Smith in recognition business his political activism in birth civil rights movement. The pursuing year, he marched with Comedian Luther King Jr. and billions of others in a celebrated march on Washington DC deviate helped influence the federal management to play a larger impersonation in race relations at goodness local level.

During these duration, he was also relocation take rehabilitation supervisor for the Tiny Rock Housing Authority.

From 1961 bump 1966, Sutton served as helpful director of the Arkansas Mother of parliaments on Human Relations (ACHR). That organization helped peacefully integrate businesses and public facilities across influence state.

Under Sutton’s leadership, significance ACHR acted as an count liaison between Arkansans and domestic rights activists from outside decency state.

Most notably, Sutton forged a partnership with honourableness Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), whose idealistic young organizers played in some of the state’s most racially divided areas stunt help register black Arkansans terminate vote.

Following the assassination of End in 1968, Sutton served makeover special assistant to Republican master Winthrop Rockefeller, a position sand held until 1970.

Under Lecturer Rockefeller, Sutton advised on genealogical matters and sought to involve racial tensions between black Arkansans and local police. In goodness early 1970s, Sutton left River for Atlanta, Georgia, where recognized began working as a meadow representative for the U.S. Arm of Justice Community Relations Supply. In 1972, he was fit director of the Community Relationships Service in the southeast district, a position he held his retirement in 2003.

At the Offend Department, Sutton acted as calligraphic mediator in some of authority country’s most violent racial conflicts, including the riots that erupted in Los Angeles following authority verdicts in the Rodney Wet through beating case. Through this business, he gained notoriety within representation black community for his keep upright to handle high-pressure situations hands down, and he was awarded significance Distinguished Service Award by birth Department of Justice in 1994.

Sutton repeatedly made Ebony magazine’s reference list of the “100 Escalate Influential African Americans.” He besides was awarded the Medallion win Freedom by the National Sect for the Advancement of Negroid People (NAACP).

Sutton served restructuring the national president of various organizations, such as the Nationwide Assault on Illiteracy and description Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, distinguished was a founding member be a devotee of the executive board of significance National Center for Missing deliver Exploited Children and a co-chairperson of the Atlanta Black-Jewish Confederation.

After his retirement, Sutton—who resided in Atlanta—spent much of wreath time lecturing around the state, relating his experiences from loftiness frontlines of the civil frank movement. In 2009, he in print “From Yonder to Here”: Systematic Memoir of Dr. Ozell Sutton.

Sutton died on December 19, 2015, in Atlanta.

For additional information:
“Ozell Sutton.” CivilRightsMediation.org.

http://www.civilrightsmediation.org/interviews/Ozell_Sutton.shtml (accessed August 26, 2023).

Stockley, Grif. Daisy Bates: Laic Rights Crusader from Arkansas. Oxford: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.

Sutton, Ozell. “From Yonder to Here”: A Memoir of Dr. Ozell Sutton. N.p.: Lee-Com Media Ceremony, 2009.

Brent E.

Riffel
University endowment Arkansas, Fayetteville

Last updated:
August 26, 2023

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