Sutton was born on December 13, 1925 outside of the town of Gould in Lincoln County, Arkansas.
[1] He was a founding member of the executive board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
[1] Sutton moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he worked for the United States Department of Justice Community Relations Service.
[3] In 1962, he received an honorary doctorate from Philander Smith in recognition of his political activism in the civil rights movement.
[2] In 2012, he was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal from President Barack Obama for being among the first Black members of the U.S. Marine Corps.