MLK lecturer inspires with his words and actions

Ozell Sutton speaks Feb. 3 in Anabel Taylor Chapel. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

By Franklin Crawford

The audience at Ozell Sutton's Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture Feb. 3 in Cornell's Anabel Taylor Chapel was treated to a grand display of lofty oratory, seasoned with hard-won wisdom, grounded in earthy humor, packed with common sense and fired by an inspiring call to action. He tilled a fertile hour that encompassed the past, present and future of human rights and racism from an eyewitness perspective.

"Racism is America's oldest unsolved problem ... and it is spreading across the whole world," Sutton said. "We are going to be in for a terribly hard time if we don't do something about it. Our greatest enemy today is not Iraq; the enemy today is not Afghanistan; our greatest enemy today is the lack of a truly functioning democracy, a democracy inclusive of all its people."

Stating that there are more young black men in prison than in college, Sutton offered a simple formula he called the "four B's" to help remedy a crisis in black America: The book, or education; the ballot, political action; the buck, reinvestment in black communities; and, lastly, black history.

"They must know about our heritage because when they do, they can't help but be inspired," he said.

Sutton called for all Americans, regardless of race, to "come together as a group to correct and direct this country."

"I don't know about you, but I don't plan to yield my flag to the haters, I don't plan to yield my country to those who hate," Sutton said, referring to the so-called "radical right" and saying "there isn't anything right about them."

If Sutton's words seem inflammatory, his tone was anything but, and his record alone speaks to a career rooted in the struggle to ensure fundamental human rights for everyone. He was among the first African Americans to serve in the U.S. Marines, surviving bloody conflicts from the Solomon Islands to Saipan to Iwo Jima and points in between. The son of a share cropping family, Sutton was born in Gould, Ark., and raised in Little Rock. He was with the Little Rock Nine when they entered Central High School during the desegregation crisis of 1957 and marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington in 1963, in Selma, Ala., in 1965, and was in Memphis with King when he was killed in 1968.

"Martin was in Room 306 and I was in Room 308. What a terrible, terrible night that was," Sutton said.

Sutton has served since 1972 as director of the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Department of Justice in the Southeast Region. Cited four times by Ebony magazine as among the "100 Most Influential African-American Leaders," he also won the "Medallion of Freedom" from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Sutton received the Justice Department's Distinguished Service Award in 1994, in addition to three department citations for his management of racial crisis situations. One of those conflicts included Sutton's handling of a Ku Klux Klan rally in which he found himself in the curious position of having to defend their right to march.

Among those in attendance Monday was Sutton's cohort Dorothy Cotton, grassroots civil rights activist, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and former director of student activities at Cornell. Sutton said he also had the opportunity to meet his old boss while on campus: Former Attorney General Janet Reno is visiting Cornell over the next two weeks as a Rhodes Class of '56 Professor.

Sutton joined Cornell Vice Provost Robert Harris Jan. 31 in a meeting of students seeking to re-constitute Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Cornell. Founded at Cornell in 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha was the first black fraternity in the United States, and Sutton was past president. He also spoke with students in senior lecturer Gerald Jackson's class on black education.

"He impressed and inspired the students with his combination of wisdom, insight, humor and sincerity," said Jackson. "I was amazed by the scope of his knowledge and his ability to connect with the students despite the vast age difference. They don't often come in contact with people his generation who are so subtle and spry of mind, who are still committed to educational excellence and to the struggle for human rights, despite the setbacks."

Sophomore Coty Franklin found Sutton's King lecture likewise inspiring. A resident of Dallas, Franklin said his parents and grandparents were involved in the civil rights movement.

"To see someone who had been in same struggle as my people really touched me," said Franklin. "We wouldn't be here if it weren't for people like him. Now it feels like this country is going backwards. [Sutton] reminds me that we're not done; we still have to continue the struggle."