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An upcoming scholarship reception and dance will mark the first joint effort of its kind between Sumner Academy and the Sumner High School Alumni Association
The reception and dance are an effort to heal a decades-old rift.
The event, "Honoring the Past and Celebrating the Future: 120 Years of Academic Excellence," will be held Friday, April 24, at Sumner Academy of Arts & Science in Kansas City, Kansas.
This year marks the 120th graduating class since the school’s formation in 1905 in the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools District.
Walking the halls Wednesday, two different colors represent the building's complex history: blue and silver for the Sumner Academy Sabres, recognized as one of the top schools in the nation, and orange and black for the Sumner High School Spartans.
Sumner High School closed in 1978 to re-brand as a preparatory academy.
It also ended the school's time as the only all-Black school in the area after desegregation efforts began.
The transition caught students off guard and left many feeling locked out of their legacy.
"There was a scar, a deep scar from Sumner High School towards Sumner Academy, and it went on for years, and there’s a deep scar for some people," Michael Hobson, Sr. said.
Hobson, president of the Sumner High School Alumni Association, was a student at the high school during the 1978 closure.
"It just gives me great pride to have been a part of it, to have been able to walk the halls," Hobson said.
Hobson graduated from Sumner Academy in 1980, and his grandmother graduated from Sumner High School in 1931.
He says he's also looking forward to a Sumner High School all-class reunion being held September 18-20.
"We’re trying to keep the name Sumner High School alive and well because of its historical significance," Hobson said.
He said community members like Chester Owens — who the school's alumni room is named after — had to salvage artifacts from the original school to make today’s alumni room possible.
"As they were transforming Sumner High School to Sumner Academy, they ripped up the Spartan head off the floor," Hobson said. "They threw away these artifacts. These artifacts were on the curb. They threw them in the trash. They tried to erase Sumner High School, the history, the historical significance." Hobson said. "You can’t get this history anywhere else except in this room.”
He's not the only one whose family has decades-long ties to the building.
"My family’s now in the fourth generation of being at the same school building," Barton Richardson said.
Richardson, a Sumner Academy alumnus from 1989, noted the strong family presence while looking back at the school's history.
His grandmother graduated in 1944, his mother graduated in 1964, his older brother graduated in 1984 and now his two children attend Sumner Academy.
He says the reception is a chance to unite the two schools in a positive way with both homage and respect.
"It’s more of a celebration,” Richardson said. “Than just an ours and yours. It’s all ours. It just looks different.”
Current students are also finding ways to connect with the building's past.
Sumner Academy senior, Ma’Laysia Lopez, is graduating in May, but she plans to carry the school’s history of excellence into her future.
"Not everyone’s very interested in the Black history of the school, but I can see it everyday," Lopez said. "It is Sumner Academy now, but Sumner Academy stemmed from Sumner High School and the Black excellence that was here, and so those are like the footsteps that I kind of want to follow.”
As alumni look to the road ahead, the upcoming scholarship reception and dance offers a chance for both preservation and reconciliation.
"That’s been my journey and my goal is to mend those wounds," Hobson said.
To learn more about the gala and purchase tickets or tables, visit sumnerscholarshipgala.com.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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