His parents Samuel and Lillian were both educators with his father being one of the first blacks in Bexar County.
His brothers included Percy Sutton (owner of Apollo Theater in New York City, attorney for Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X, and Manhattan Borough President) and Oliver Sutton (a judge on the New York Supreme Court).
Sutton attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, but earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Wilberforce University in 1932.
When the Texas House of Representatives redrew their districts in 1972, Sutton became the first black official elected in San Antonio.
[1] With the encouragement of his best friend Claude Black, his wife Lou Nelle Sutton ran and succeeded her husband in the Texas House of Representatives.