[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 132 (Friday, September 7, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PERCY SUTTON POST OFFICE BUILDING

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 5, 2007

  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I rise to express my support 
for the resolution to name the post office at 365 West 125th Street in 
New York City as the ``Percy Sutton Post Office Building.''
  A civil rights leader and businessman, Percy Sutton was a pre-eminent 
fixture of New York politics, serving as a member of the New York State 
Assembly and from 1966 through 1977 as Manhattan Borough President. 
Most of all, Percy Sutton was one of the architects of the effort to 
revive Upper Manhattan.
  Percy Sutton once said, ``If you pray for only one thing, let it be 
for an idea.'' He was a man of innumerable ideas--many of them 
profoundly important for New York City and for the community he 
represented. He lived an astonishingly full life that included stints 
as a stunt pilot, military intelligence officer, lawyer, civil rights 
activist, politician, media baron and technology executive.
  Most of all, Percy Sutton dared to dream the impossible. At a time 
when Harlem was crumbling, he believed that it could become a tourist 
attraction. When the famous Apollo Theatre closed, it threatened to 
become another vacant shell on a street of shuttered stores. He 
acquired the theater, in a move that is widely considered the first 
step to the renewal of 125th Street.
  Percy Sutton had an important and lasting impact on the community 
surrounding the post office, and it is fitting to have a federal 
building named in his honor. I am proud to support H.R. 954.

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