SHARON EGRETTA JOHNSON SUTTON

Playing my French horn in the orchestra at graduations, which sealed my love of commencement ceremonies forever!

My memory is foggy, but here is what Carol Voss remembers about me:

"I can remember you as if it were yesterday at Walnut Hills. For many years I have told the story about our basketball games during gym class with Ms Hutchison and Miss Sellers. I guess they could be called basketball games although none of us were very serious and none were "jocks". Of special note was one of your plays (and I hope you remember this event). It almost made Miss Sellers swallow her whistle. Anyhow we were guards and if you remember back then, the guards could not cross the center line to shoot baskets. Well, Sharon not only crossed the line, but did not dribble the ball either. She carried the ball, ran across the center line and shot at the basket. I thought that spectacular, because I had never seen so many rules broken at once. Good for you. Do you remember this? What courage. Blame it on those blue gym suits we wore and refused to wash."

Guess I did (and will do) anything to win!

I am a public scholar who advocates for participatory planning and design processes in disenfranchised communities. I was the twelfth African American woman to be licensed to practice architecture, the first to be promoted to full professor of architecture, and the second to be elected a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA). My latest book, When Ivory Towers Were Black (Fordham University Press, 2017), describes the nation's boldest recruitment of minority architecture and planning students during the Civil Rights Movement. An earlier book, Weaving a Tapestry of Resistance (Bergin and Garvey Press, 1996), describes the inequitable neighborhood and school environments that shape children’s lives. Currently, I am distinguished visiting professor at Parsons School of Design, adjunct professor at Columbia University and professor emerita at the University of Washington, and earlier served on the faculties of Pratt Institute, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Michigan. In addition to being a fellow in the AIA, I am a distinguished professor in the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and an inductee in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. I live in New York City with a Pekingese (my fifth), two cockatiels, and many plants.

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