Programming Highlights

Saturday, INSIDE NEW YORK celebrates Black History Month with a Salute to Tuskegee Airmen, in memory of Percy Sutton and Lee A. Archer

February 26, 2015
Joan H. Allen, Host of INSIDE NEW YORK and Lee A. Archer, Jr.
Percy Sutton on MNN

Saturday, February 28th  MNN's "Inside New York"  celebrates Black History Month with a Salute to Tuskegee Airmen, Percy Sutton and Lee A. Archer with a rebroadcast of one of their early interviews.

 
Percy Sutton, the pioneering civil rights attorney who represented Malcolm X before launching successful careers as a political power broker and media mogul, discussed along with Retired Lt. Col Lee A. Archer, Jr. what led to the formation of the Tuskegee Airmen, their careers as Tuskegee Airmen and their experiences as Tuskegee Airmen, the racism that they faced and the groundbreaking accomplishments that have only recently been recognized, on INSIDE NEW YORK. 
 
The son of a slave, Percy Sutton became a fixture on 125th Street in Harlem after moving to New York City following his service with the famed Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. His Harlem law office, founded in 1953, represented Malcolm X and the slain activist's family for decades.  
 
The consummate politician, Sutton served in the New York State Assembly before taking over as Manhattan borough president in 1966, becoming the highest-ranking black elected official in the state.  He later built with his brother Oliver Sutton, the first Black -owned radio station in New York City and a media empire, The Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.  In addition to radio holdings, Sutton headed a group that owned the Amsterdam News and latter purchased the Apollo Theatre.
 
Retired Lt. Col. Lee A. Archer, Jr., the only Black ace pilot Tuskegee Airman, who rose to the highest echelons of corporate America and later founded a venture capital firm, was born in Yonkers, New York, the son of a World War I 369 Harlem Hell Fighter.  Lee said he remembered wanting to be a pilot as early as 1941.  "Even in 1925, the war college of the U.S. military produced a study: What Should We Do in the Event of War with Negroes? They said, "Negroes should never be in the Army Air Force, except as servants." And they listed the reasons why.  "They lacked courage, they lacked intelligence to operate the machines, they're from an inferior race of people and they even indicated that we lacked coordination, which is one of the dumbest things I ever heard in my life."
"And the ridiculous part of it was that the history of Blacks in the military had been remarkable, even before the revolutionary war.  At one time African-Americans had more distinguished crosses and medals of honor, per percentage of the population, than any other group."
 
"INSIDE NEW YORK" is broadcast every Saturday at 8:30 pm  on MNN2 and MNN.org. Get program updates via Joan Allen on  Facebook  and Twitter ( @ARTSINEWYORK ), and watch "INSIDE NEW YORK" Saturday, February 28th   at 8:30 pm  on MNN2 (TWC 56, RCN 83, FiOS 34) and  via Livestream on MNN.org .
 
Photo 1: Joan H. Allen, Host of INSIDE NEW YORK and Lee A. Archer, Jr. (Photo credit:  Gideon Manasseh)
Photo 2: Percy Sutton