Background
Sugarmon was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Russell and Lessye Hank Sugarmon. He grew up in South Memphis and attended Company-Operative Gammar School.
Sugarmon was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Russell and Lessye Hank Sugarmon. He grew up in South Memphis and attended Company-Operative Gammar School.
In 1946, Sugarmon graduated from Booker T. Washington High School when he was 15 years old. Sugarman attended Morehouse College for one year. In 1953 he received a law degree Harvard Law School and attended Boston University"s Graduate School of Finance.
He received an Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rutgers University in 1950. He practiced as an attorney in Memphis, Tennessee in the firm Ratner, Sugarmon, Lucas, Willis and Caldwell. In 1959, Sugarmon ran for Public Works Commissioner, the first African-American in Memphis to run for a major city office.
The outgoing commissioner, Henry Loeb, forced most of the other candidates to withdraw from the election, so as not to split the white vote among several candidates.
Sugarmon served in the Tennessee House of Representatives as a Democrat from the 11th District from 1967 to 1969.
