Sutton, Percy Ellis
1920-2009 · Contribution: 1953-2009
Co-founded Inner City Broadcasting Corporation in 1971, purchasing WLIB-AM as New York City's first Black-owned radio station, then rescued Harlem's Apollo Theater from bankruptcy in 1981
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Category
- Business & Misc.
Impact on the world
Sutton built parallel empires in law, politics, and media, defending the civil-rights movement's leaders while creating Black-owned broadcasting and saving Harlem's most iconic cultural institution.
Sources
- Black Enterprise
1 more sources and references are available to members.
More in Business & Misc.
Ajao, Adeyemi
1981–Present
Co-founded Base10 Partners, the first Black-led venture capital firm to manage over $1 billion in assets
Allen, Byron
1961-present
Built Allen Media Group from a single bartered celebrity-interview show into a multibillion-dollar media empire spanning broadcast television stations, cable networks, The Weather Channel, and a controlling stake in BuzzFeed, making him one of the wealthiest Black media owners in American history
Allen, Eliza
c. 1840–1910
Only woman listed on the founding charter of the first chartered African American-owned bank in the United States
Awotona, Tope
1981-
Founded Calendly, a widely used scheduling software platform