Civil-rights legend and Harlem power player Percy Sutton was remembered yesterday at a stirring, VIP-studded funeral service as the man who paved the way for generations of black leaders.
With every pew in the cavernous Riverside Church packed, the 89-year-old former Manhattan borough president and Malcolm X lawyer was praised in more than a dozen tributes by US Attorney General Eric Holder, former Mayor David Dinkins, the Rev. Al Sharpton and others.
“Percy Ellis Sutton departed us paid in full,” Dinkins said of Sutton, who with the ex-mayor, Rep. Charles Rangel and former state Sen. Basil Paterson made up the “Gang of Four” Harlem power brokers before his passing on Dec. 26. “Let him not look down and find any of us in arrears.”
He credited Sutton, a Tuskegee Airman war hero and a media player who owned Inner City Broadcasting and helped save the decrepit Apollo Theater, with creating a new political dynamic.
It meant “that no one laughed when I announced my [mayoral] campaign in 1989,” Dinkins said.
Repeatedly referring to what was once four, Dinkins’ voice broke as he said, “Now we are three.”
Sutton’s body lay nearby in the chapel. Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson served as honorary pallbearers.
Holder gave his own brief remembrance, saying, “The opportunities given to my generation were paid for by his.”
He read a letter from President Obama, in which he offered condolences from him and First Lady Michelle Obama.
Stevie Wonder sang “I’ll Be Loving You Always,” at a piano adjacent to pews where Dinkins sat alongside Mayor Bloomberg and near Paterson and Rangel.
Also nearby were Sen. Charles Schumer, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan), former Deputy Mayor Bill Lynch and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens).
Gov. Paterson, Basil Paterson’s son, attended the viewing, but left before the service to deliver his State of the State address.
He taped a video message in the church nave, in which he proposed renaming the Apollo for Sutton. Former Gov. Mario Cuomo also was on hand; his son, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, was attending Gov. Paterson’s speech.
Jackson was one of the first speakers.
“The tallest tree in our forest has fallen,” he said. “You’ve paved the way, Mr. Chairman. Be at rest.”