Sumner High School (St. Louis)

History

Charlton Tandy led protests of the planned siting of Sumner High School in a heavily polluted area in close proximity to a lead works, lumber and tobacco warehouses, and the train station as well as brothels. He said that black students deserved clean and quiet schools the same way white students do. The location went unchanged, and Sumner High opened in 1875, the first high school opened for African Americans west of the Mississippi. The school is named after the well-known abolitionist senator Charles H. Sumner. The high school was established on Eleventh Street in St. Louis between Poplar and Spruce Street, in response to demands to provide educational opportunities, following a requirement that school boards support black education after Republicans passed the "radical" Constitution of 1865 in Missouri that also abolished slavery.

The school was moved in the 1880s because parents complained that their children were walking past the city gallows and morgue on their way to school.

Cottage Avenue campus

The current structure, built in 1908, was designed by architect William B. Ittner. Sumner was the only Black public high school in St. Louis City until the opening of Vashon High School in 1927.

Frank Lunsford Williams was principal from 1908 to 1929. Noted instructors included Herman Dreer, Edward Bouchet and Charles H. Turner.

Other later Black high schools in St. Louis County were Douglass High School (opened in 1925) and Kinloch High School (1936).{{Cite book

In 2009, St. Louis Public School Superintendent Kevin Adams proposed several options with students and parents of how to deal with the problems of the school. He recommended improvements including using Sumner alumni to mentor current students, transferring troublesome students to different schools, and setting achievable goals for the school year.

Sumner Normal School (1890–1954)

In 1890, a normal school was opened at the high school, in order to train more teachers. In its early years the normal school was known as the Cottage Avenue School, and it was located on Cottage Avenue and Pendleton. It also went by the name Sumner Normal School. In 1929, its name was changed to Stowe Teachers College (which later merged to form Harris–Stowe State University), after author Harriet Beecher Stowe and it existed in the former Simmons Colored School campus from 1930 until 1940. The normal school closed in 1954 in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling school segregation to be unconstitutional.

Florence Beatty-Brown was a sociology professor at the college.

Athletics

Sumner High's mascot is the Bulldog. Sumner's 1969 basketball team won the Missouri Class L state championship and featured future NBA and ABA players Harry Rogers and Marshall Rogers, as well as David Brent who was a 6th round draft pick for the Los Angeles Lakers. Sports that are currently offered are football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, track and field, tennis, and soccer.

Campus violence

On October 23, 1973, a person was shot during a fight between two gangs.

On March 18, 1975, two students got in a fight and one of the students tried to shoot the other but missed and killed 16-year-old bystander Stephen Goods.

On March 25, 1993, female student Lawanda Jackson shot and killed her ex-boyfriend Tony Hall in a school hallway. Jackson was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action and was sentenced to life without parole but has since been resentenced and paroled.

On October 10, 1996, 17-year-old Lamon Jones was shot and killed by 15-year-old Kembert Thomas during a fight among several students. Thomas was convicted of second-degree murder.

2025 tornado damage

Sumner High School was among twelve St. Louis schools damaged by a tornado on May 16, 2025. The storm extensively damaged Sumner's roof and some classrooms. St. Louis Public Radio reported, "The recent tornado destroyed parts of Sumner’s roof, damaged some of its tennis courts and downed trees. SLPS reported the storm’s damage and will move Sumner students to Clyde C. Miller College Prep Academy in Grand Center this fall. Alumni are concerned that this move could become an excuse for district officials to shutter the school, though the district says it will not."

According to Andrea Henderson of NPR, "...in an effort to keep one of the city's most storied and impactful schools alive, alumni are working to get Sumner national historic landmark status through the National Park Service."

Notable alumni

• Arthur Ashe (1943–1993), professional tennis player
• Ethel Hedgeman Lyle (1887–1950), founder and "Guiding Light" of Alpha Kappa Alpha
• Chuck Berry (1926–2017), musician in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Lester Bowie (1941–1999), jazz trumpeter
• Grace Bumbry (born 1937–2023), opera singer
• Baikida Carroll (born 1947), trumpeter and composer
• Alvin Cash (1939–1999), musician
• Bill Clay (born 1931), politician
• Nate Colbert (1946–2023), baseball player
• Billy Davis Jr. (born 1938), singer, The 5th Dimension
• Juan Farrow (born 1958), tennis player
• Dick Gregory (1932–2017), comedian
• Robert Guillaume (1927–2017), actor known for portraying the character Benson DuBois on the ABC sitcom Soap and its spinoff Benson
• Victoria Clay Haley (1877–1926, class of 1895), suffragist and clubwoman
• John Hicks (1941–2006), musician{{cite book
• Jessie Housley Holliman (1905–1984), educator and artist
• Julius Hunter (born 1943), television news broadcaster
• Ivan C. James Jr. (1916–2014), engineer
• Oliver Lake (born 1942), musician
• Naomi Long Madgett (1923–2020), poet and publisher
• Robert McFerrin (1921–2006), opera singer and father of Bobby McFerrin
• Joseph L. McLemore, class of 1919, attorney and congressional candidate
• Gene Moore (born 1945), basketball player
• Oliver Nelson (1932–1975), jazz musician and composer
• David Peaston (1957–2012), famous R&B singer
• Wendell O. Pruitt (1920–1945), pioneering military pilot and Tuskegee Airman in whose honor the notorious Pruitt–Igoe housing projects were posthumously named
• Bruce Purse, musician, trumpeter and writer
• Roscoe Robinson Jr. (1928–1993), first Black to reach rank of four-star general in US Army
• Harry Rogers (born 1950), basketball player
• Marshall Rogers (1953–2011), NCAA basketball scoring champion
• Darnay Scott (born 1972), former NFL player. Transferred after his sophomore season
• Moddie Taylor (1912-1976), chemist who specialized in rare earth minerals
• Ronald Townson (1934–2001), singer The 5th Dimension
• Tina Turner (1939–2023), singer in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Harold Wells (born 1938), former NFL player.
• Ernie Wilkins (1922-1999), jazz saxophonist, conductor and arranger
• Arsania Williams (1886–1954), educator and clubwoman in St. Louis
• Margaret Bush Wilson (1919–2009), first Black woman to head the board of NAACP
• Olly Wilson (1937–2018), composer

References

References

1. "Sumner High School / Overview". Slps.org.
2. {{NRISref
3. [https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=2929280&ID=292928002009 School data for Sumner High], [[National Center for Education Statistics]]. Accessed May 28, 2025.
4. Jack, Bryan M.. (February 1, 2008). "The St. Louis African American Community and the Exodusters". University of Missouri Press.
5. [https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/10/travel/travel-advisory-black-history-in-st-louis.html "Travel Advisory; Black History in St. Louis"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', May 10, 1992. Accessed December 11, 2007. "Sumner High School, the first school west of the Mississippi for blacks, established in 1875 (among graduates are Grace Bumbry, Arthur Ashe and Tina Turner)..."
6. (2005). "Charles Sumner H.S., an American Black academic beginning".
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8. Primm, James Neal. (1998). ''Lion of the Valley: St. Louis, Missouri, 1764-1980''. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society.
9. (2005-06-14). "J'S THEATER: 130 Years of Sumner High School (St. Louis)". Jstheater.blogspot.com.
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14. "Newsworthy-What Will Happen to Historic Sumner High School?". Historyhappenshere.org.
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31. (22 December 1996). "Chaney School Suspect In Killing At Sumner Certified To Be Tried As Adult".
32. Henderson, Andrea Y.. (2025-06-27). "Sumner alumni worry tornado damage may permanently shutter the school".
33. Henderson, Andrea. (2025-10-22). "A Historic St. Louis school struggles to survive". NPR.
34. Henderson, Andrea. (2025-10-22). "A Historic St. Louis school struggles to survive". NPR.
35. Weinraub, Bernard. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CEEDD113DF930A15751C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 "Sweet Tunes, Fast Beats and a Hard Edge"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 23, 2003. Accessed December 11, 2007. "A significant moment in his early life was a musical performance in 1941 at Sumner High School, which had a middle-class black student body."
36. "Nate Colbert, Padres' all-time HR leader, dies at 76".
37. Haberman, Clyde, [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/arts/dick-gregory-dies-at-84.html "Dick Gregory, 84, Dies; Found Humor in the Civil Rights Struggle"], ''The New York Times'', August 19, 2017: "the pioneering black satirist who transformed cool humor into a barbed force for civil rights in the 1960s". Retrieved 2017-08-20.
38. [http://www.aeispeakers.com/speakerbio.php?SpeakerID=461 Dick Gregory ], AEI Speakers Bureau. Accessed December 11, 2007. "A track star at Sumner High School, Gregory earned an athletic scholarship in 1951 to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and became the first member of his family to attend college. "
39. Dodd, Donald. [http://www.thesalemnewsonline.com/opinion/publishers_column/donald_dodd/article_5d22920e-6948-11e6-b347-f7f91803b9c0.html "A tale of two high schools: Sumner of yesterday is a world apart from the Sumner of today"], ''[[The Salem News]]'', August 23, 2016. Retrieved February 13, 2017. "Sumner was more than up to the challenge and left a legacy. Rock and Roll Hall of Famers? Chuck Berry and Tina Turner. Wimbledon champ? Arthur Ashe. Actor? Robert Guillaume of the TV show Benson."
40. Mather, Frank Lincoln, ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=RFZ2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA127 ''Who's Who of the Colored Race''], p. 127. Chicago, 1915. Retrieved February 13, 2017. "HALEY, Victoria Clay, lecturer; born at Macon, Miss., Jan. 1, 1877; daughter of Samuel and Charlotte (Williams) Clay; grad. Sumner High School St Louis Mo 1895"
41. King, Chris. (2012-01-26). "Oliver Lake as poet and painter - St. Louis American: Living It". Stlamerican.com.
42. [http://www.broadsidelotuspress.org/aboutlotus Naomi Long Madgett & Lotus Press], [[Broadside Lotus Press]]. Retrieved December 16, 2020. "A graduate of Ashland Grammar School and beginning freshman at East Orange High School, she moved again to St. Louis, Missouri where her father served as pastor of Central Baptist Church for the next four years. There she attended and graduated with honors from historic, all-black Sumner High School."
43. [http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3266 Robert McFerrin Sr. (1921–2006)], ''[[Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture]]''. Accessed December 12, 2007. "His father arranged for him to attend Sumner High School in St. Louis, Missouri. McFerrin intended to become an English teacher but changed his career plans after he joined the high school choir and received his first formal music instruction under chorus director Wirt Walton."
44. [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-st-louis-argus-joseph-l-mclemore-t/185792558/ "Heads Bar Association,"] ''St. Louis Argus,'' vol. 15, no. 41 (Feb. 4, 1927, p. 1.
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46. [http://www.youngsaintlouis.com/archive/June2007/kids/sonder.shtml Young St. Louis]. Retrieved July 28, 2008. "Wendell Pruitt was a Sumner High School graduate who was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen."
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