Percy Ellis Sutton was a prominent black American political and business leader. An activist in the civil rights movement and lawyer, he was also a Freedom Rider and the legal representative for Malcolm X. He was the highest-ranking African-American elected official in New York City when serving as Manhattan borough president from 1966 to 1977, the longest tenure at that position. He later became an entrepreneur, with investments including the New York Amsterdam News and Apollo Theater in Harlem