Ozell Sutton – Activist (December 13, 1925 – December 19, 2015)
“You can’t believe what it’s like to fight for your country and be humiliated by your country at the same time.”
Ozell Sutton was born into a volatile time in American history, in which the color of his skin was expected to serve as a ceiling for his potential. From an early age Mr. Sutton came to the conclusion that he would not accept this fate.
In 2012 Mr. Sutton was granted the Congressional Gold Medal from President Barack Obama for having been one of the first black men to serve in the United States Marine Corps, which he did in World War II. Upon his return home he continued to kick down barriers, first getting hired as the first black journalist at the all-white Arkansas Democrat, then by committing his body and soul to the civil rights movement. When he posed as a decoy to allow black kids entry to Little Rock Central High School during its uncomfortable desegregation in 1957 he was rewarded with a beating by a gaggle of asshole protesters on the wrong side of history.
Less than a decade later he was marching in Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A few years after that he found himself in a room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when a bullet rang out and took Dr. King’s life just a few feet away.
Mr. Sutton never backed down from his cause, and even in the face of such grotesque violence from the other side he maintained his commitment to peaceful resistance. When the city of Los Angeles threatened to collapse upon itself from the post-Rodney King riots in 1992, Mr. Sutton was there, working with the Rebuild L.A. cause and trying to heal the city. He was a founding member of the executive board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. His raison d’etre never shifted – he was a consistent warrior for humankind.
This world always seems a little darker when we hear about the loss of someone this devoted to righteousness and justice. Ozell Sutton was by any and every measure one of the good guys. But time takes its toll on everyone, and to hear of someone this magnificent passing away due to natural causes rather than from a premature nudge off this mortal coil is actually a positive thing. He had 90 years to make a difference in the world and he accomplished so much more than most.
