Sumner Public School

Name: Sumner Public School

Location: 111 Rural Street, Boonville, Missouri

Built: 1915

Originally built in 1915 on the corner of Fourth and Spruce Streets, Sumner Public School was "Boonville's Negro School." The school offered classes from grades one through twelve. It was constructed through the efforts of J. Milton Turner, a nationally known educator who established schools for Negro education throughout the country.

Sumner is named after U. S. Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist who was attacked by southern colleagues on the floor of the U.S. Senate. He protested at a time that "place" of black society was to remain quiet. He soon became a symbol to the North.

Many African-American Schools were substandard under segregation. Sumner was an exception and almost an elitist school among the states African-American educational institutions.

The original Sumner School was sold by the Boonville School District in 1939 to Spruce Street Investment Corporation owned by Randall Meyer. The building was converted and used as apartments until 1960. In 1977 it was sold to Homer Adkins.

The original Sumner School was replaced with the 23-year-old structure at 111 Rural Street. It provided education to Boonville's African-Americans until 1956.

Robert Blankenbaker, principal of Laura Speed Elliott School (7th through 12th grades), anticipated the future of segregated schooling, which the United States Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1954.

He began integration in Boonville schools in 1938 with the first grade. Between 1938 and 1956 a grade was shifted each one to two years to Laura Speed Elliott School. None of the teachers at Sumner were hired into the integrated schools. The transition was designed so that as teachers retired, the classes were transferred. One teacher transferred into the Columbia School District.

The school district sold the building to Guy's Potato Chips. Many of the trophies and awards that Sumner had received over the years were destroyed as the potato chip manufacturer converted the school into a plant. Later, Guy's sold the school to the Concerned Citizens of the Black Community.

Today, the school serves as a social, historical and educational center.

Special thanks for information provided by H. T. Mays, who completed his sophomore year at Sumner School in 1956, the last year classes were held there.