30 Million State Contract

(Continued from Page 1 ) looked toward the American flag flying City or that Center City will have to pay beside the emblem of the State of New Sutton to buy him out. York, Stevens pointed to the national Either way, that $30 million in state colors and declared, "This.community has money will go a long way towards no lq,alty except to all the people who alleviating financial problems that may inhabit it.!' currently plague Amnews and Inner City .. - to the eventual financial benefit, it Assemblyman Gray (D-70) seemed to would appear. of Sutton and the other take' a.verbal blast at the building later owners. when he told the small crowd, which by As THE NEW YORK AGE goes to this time had diminished along with the press, we can report that documents dais guests, "The real issue is housing and relating to various transactions and employment for this community. This proposals concerning the office building bililding should remind us each time we property have been made available to see it that wemust renew our efforts to THE AGE. The documents are both work for our people in Harlem, because we lengthy and complex, and rather than can't sleep in this building." summarize them after a superficial examination, they have been turned over Rabbi Anderson, a Black Jew and a to legal and financial analysts for close community worker with the Harlem inspection. A complete report will be Salute Committee, was helmit-last, published in future issues. just as Gray was not allowed to speak until But, as with the old controversy over after Governor Wilson left. the wisdom of a state office building in Harlem, the new co~troversyover the The rabbi castigated the "establish- widsom of a state office building in ment" for omitting the names of"severa1 Harlem, the new controversy and charges "Black revolutionaies" from the long list of conflict on interest seemed distant from of names called when Master of the Monday dedication ceremonies. Over Ceremonies Kenneth Sherwood mentioned a hundred speakers described only outstanding Harlem and Black leaders benefits, mostly of economic expansion, who made contributions to the planning that the tower will bring to Harlem. and completion of the building, as well as to the community. ~utthree speakers, Assemblyman Jesse Earlier, in his address the Governor Gray, uptown Chamber of Commerce said that Harlem residents will be "em- President Hope Stevens, and attorney and ployed in the building." But most of the Rabbi Judah Anderson, dissented from 3,000employes will come from other areas the chorus of praise for the new building, to work in the 20-story building. Most of ' calling on Mayor Abraham Beame, the employes will be white, working in 17 Governor Malcolm Wilson and other dais departments scheduled to move into the guests to provide housing for the Halem building. Wilson's remarks drew a community. restrained response. "Let the word go forth from this place to Mayor Beame and Governor Wilson," The audience saved their outpouring of Stevens said as the two men sat directly applause for African Memorial Bookstore behind him, "that we want housing and owner Louis Micheaux, whose store with that we demand it now. Otherwise this '. over 225,000 volumes on Black history was magnificent building will be nothing but a originally situated on the office building's mockery and not a monument." site. Apparently referring to economic Loud cheers from a crowd estimated at growth for Harlem, as well as the need of over 1,000 followed his remarks, which Blacks to obtain knowledge, Micheaux seemed to surprise a good number of his said, "You can be Black as a crow or listeners. White as snow, but if you don't know and But Stevens was not through. As he ain't got no dough, you can't go!" Guess Who's Coming to Gracie Mansion By Nicholas Pileggi "... Percy Sutton has just eclipsed Herman Badillo as the minority candidate for mayor most likely to succeed with white voters . .3 7 After twenty years of the most daz- I said, 'No, I'm Oliver Sutton. You're Jones, the established Harlem churches, zling mystifications, Percy Ellis Sutton, talking about my brother.' the emerging and diverse civil-rights ac- the ex-barnstorming stunt pilot from "As soon as that guy left the win- tivists, and the sidewalk interests of San Antonio, the cocoa-colored, silky- dow I knew that when morning came policy racketeers. voiced master of clubhouse sleight of I would resign from the T.A. I saw Sutton lzarned to finesse his way past hand, the 53-year-old Democrat who that I was beginning to develop a the diametrically opposed demands of has miraculously juggled the oddball crutch in that booth. Certainly I needed his closest allies. First you saw him, factions of his own party in defiance of it, because young black lawyers weren't then you didn't. Alliances with other all the laws of political gravity, the one exactly being signed up out of law young rebels like Charles Rangel, who and only goateed Manhattan borough school in those days. You had to pretty is now a congressman, and Basil Pater- president, Percy E. Sutton, is about to much piece together a practice one son, the vice-chairman of the National perform his most extraordinary magical client at a time, but that guy drove me Democratic Party, appeared to change act-he is about to emerge from behind right out of the subway, and with Joe from election to election, and yef no a screen of color-blinding alliances and Pinckney's help, I ran for district lead- one was ever certain. Sutton seemed to hurl himself and his hatful of commit- er of his club." nurture secrets, and behind an easy ments into the 1977 mayoral race. Sutton lost that race and continued smile, he learned to keep his mouth Sutton has been preparing for this to lose elections for the next eleven shut. LikeThe Shadow, he had so com- show since 1952, when he first volun- years, but during that period he learned pletely mastered the art of clouding teered his legal services at Assembly- Byzantine politics in New York. He men's minds that no one ever knew man Joseph Pinckney's Central Demo- learned- about sworn allegiances that exactly where he stood. At one time in cratic Club in Harlem. dissolve overnight, about paying off the early sixties he managed to head "I learned politics and election law election captains to get out the vote, the prestigious and middle-of-the-road on the clubhouse and election-day about voting machines that jam on re- New York branch of the N.A.A.C.P., level," Sutton said. "All day long for quest, and about the voracious young represent Malcolm X during a shooting over a year, I apprenticed myself to reformers who devour their elders dur- and bomb-throwing war with the Mus- Joe Pinckney, practicing law free of ing biennial voting frenzies. He even lims, and maintain a daily liaison with charge for the club's regulars, organ- learned to live on four hours' sleep a Captain Yusef, who headed the Mus- izing tenant groups, pushing voter reg- night. But, perhaps most important, lims' toughest supporters, the Fruit of istration, and working at night as a Sutton learned the art of being elusive. Islam. subway change booth clerk at the Van He saw, that survival in Harlem poli- With the collapse of Adam Powell's Wyck Boulevard station in Queens. I tics during the fifties required a talent machine and Ray Jones's move to the volunteered for that rather isolated for evasion. For instance, in his very Virgin Islands, Sutton began not only booth because I didn't want any of my first race against Assemblyman Lloyd to take control of most of Harlem's clients to see that their hotshot lawyer Dickens for a district leadership, Sutton organized political structure through needed another job in order to live. found that one candidate had been kid- the Martin Luther King Jr. Democratic One night. about a year after I started napped, a clubhouse burned, and an Club (he's still a district leader), but at the club, I was giving out change inquiring assistant U.S. attorney pistol- also to establish himself as a major when I recognized a bright young law- whipped. Only the nimblest of men force in distributing millions of dollars yer against whom I had just argued could succeed on that kind of stage in anti-poverty funds, Model Cities some motions earlier. I remember he or amid the precariously balanced and jobs, and Harlem Urban Development came up to the window and kept look- ever shifting dktentes between Congress- Corporation contracts. ing at me. Finally, he said, 'Hey, aren't man Adam C. Powell, Tammany boss On many of the important boards, you Percy Sutton?' I was soembarrassed. (later City Councilman) J. Raymond such as H.U.D.C., Sutton is suspected i NEW YORK 39 ". Sutton has been sweeping away potential scandal for years and before our wondering eyes coming up with clean hands.. .97 of having one or even more of his allies Oliver Sutton, and M. S. Woolfolk, the Bradford, who had also been an official (usually unknown to each other) sit- treasurer of his 1972 testimonial dinner in the original company. Bradford, who ting as members. The H.U.D.C., for in- (which raised $75,461) at the Ameri- insisted to Kahn that he was only the stance, controls the spending of more cana Hotel.

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