Sumner High School (St. Louis)

Infobox_School
name = Sumner High School

---

imagesize = thumb
motto =
established = 1875
grades = 9-12
district = St. Louis Public Schools
type = Public high school
principal = Sherman Curtis
enrollment = 1,193 (as of 2005-06)
faculty = 77.0 (on FTE basis)
ratio = 15.5
nickname = Bulldogs
conference =
colors =
publication =
location = 4248 Cottage Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63113
information = 314-371-1048
website = [http://locations.slps.org/location.asp?RecordID=5E575F&LocName=Sumner%20MEGA%20High%20School School website]

Sumner High School, also known as Charles E. Sumner High School, is a four-year public high school in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, operated as part of the St. Louis Public Schools.

As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,193 students and 77.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 15.5. [http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=2929280&SchoolPageNum=7&ID=292928002009 Sumner High School] , National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 12, 2007.]

chool mission

The mission of the school states purpose to be responsive to the academic, social, civic, and developmental needs of their students, "including training them to be successful, functioning graduates," so that they can make worthy "contributions to themselves, their families, school and community in today’s global society." [cite web|url=http://locations.slps.org/location.asp?RecordID=5E575F&LocName=Sumner%20MEGA%20High%20School|title=St. Louis Public Schools, "Sumner MEGA High School"|accessdate=2007-12-11]

History

Sumner High, opened in 1875, and was the first high school opened for African-Americans west of the Mississippi. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DC1331F933A25756C0A964958260 "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)..."] [ [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1685/Charles_Sumner_HS_an_American_Black_academic_beginning Charles Sumner H.S., an American Black academic beginning] ] The school is named after the well-known abolitionist senator Charles E. Sumner. [http://jstheater.blogspot.com/2005/06/130-years-of-sumner-high-school-st.html 130 Years of Sumner High School (St. Louis)] ] The high school was established, on Eleventh Street - in St. Louis - between Poplar and Spruce, in response to demands to provide educational opportunities, following a requirement that school boards support black education with The Radical Constitution of 1865 in Missouri. [Primm, James Neal. (1998). "Lion of the Valley: St. Louis, Missouri, 1764-1980". St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society.] The school was moved in the 1880s because because parents complained that their children were walking past the gallows on their way to school. Sumner was the only Black public high school in St. Louis until 1927.

Notable alumni

* Arthur Ashe (1943-1993), tennis player.
* Chuck Berry (1926-), musician. [Weinraub, Bernard. [http://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."]
* Grace Bumbry (1937-), opera singer.
* Hon. William Clay (1931-), politician
* Billy Davis, Jr. (1940-), The Fifth Dimension
* Dick Gregory (1932-), comedian. [ [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. "]
* Robert Guillaume (1927-), actor known for portraying the character Benson DuBois on the ABC sitcom "Soap" and its spinoff "Benson".
* Robert McFerrin (1921-2006), opera singer and father of Bobby McFerrin. [ [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."]
* Wendell O. Pruitt (1920-1945) pioneering military pilot and Tuskegee Airman in whose honor the notorious Pruitt-Igoe housing projects were named. [ [http://www.youngsaintlouis.com/archive/June2007/kids/sonder.shtml Young St. Louis] . Accessed July 28, 2008. "Wendell Pruitt was a Sumner High School graduate who was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen."]
* Tina Turner (1939-), musician.
* Rev. Steven G. Thompson-Sr (1945-), Senior Pastor/Teacher at the Historic Leonard Missionary Baptist Church of St. Louis, MO

References

External links

* [http://locations.slps.org/location.asp?RecordID=5E575F&LocName=Sumner%20MEGA%20High%20School Official site]