How a local school is memorializing the historic life & career of Tina Turner

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Before the legendary career and before she was even Tina Turner, Anna Mae Bullock graduated from Sumner High School in 1958. As the first black high school west of the Mississippi, Sumner is thick with a history of its own.

Gerald Cozart is a proud 1955 alum.

“We had wonderful teachers. We had two or three doctorate degrees here in this school teaching high school.” Cozart recalled.

There’s also always been an abundance of budding talent. Cozart started singing when he was 12.

“I thought I was Mr. Big Shot. Until I got here, and there were so many great voices. It just blew my ever-loving mind,” he said. “I was amazed at the way Dr. Billups would take these young people and mold them, give them direction and spend extra time with them, which he did with me. I was singing incorrectly, and he caught it. He gave me his address. Every Saturday. 10am I was there.”

Cozart’s review of Sumner’s impact on his life, the opportunities and the teachers who helped along the way extends generations. Sean Betts grew up in the surrounding and equally historic Ville neighborhood. He graduated from Sumner in 1994.

“I’ve always come up saying, ‘I hate school.’ When I got to Sumner, I was like ‘I love this,” Betts said. “I ran track, I ran cross country, I was part of the band, I played the trumpet. It just opened me up to new experiences.”

For more than 150 years, Sumner’s been an anchor of education for blacks in St. Louis. The school’s Director of Arts and Special Programs, Jermaine Smith, said they used to call Sumner the “black Julliard.” The artistic roots in the halls never died, in fact, there’s new growth. The arts have been engrained in the curriculum and Smith said in three years, the school’s enrollment has grown to more than 350 students.

“My arts program, there’s over 100 in there,” said Smith.

Sumner’s arts department is now made up of “pathways.”

“It gives everybody a different experience in high school. It makes you actually want to be here like it’s fun,” Sumner senior and arts student Zeaneya Rhone said.

In the courses, the students are finding inspiration in the people who’ve already been through the same halls and learning just like themselves, there’s so much more to artists and legends like Tina Turner.

“When she came to Sumner, she was a poor child, she didn’t have as much as other kids,” Rhone said. “When I came to Sumner I kind of fit in, but not really fit in. So, when you go through things other people went through, I can understand Tina and some of her life choices.”

Rhone is in the living arts class which is repurposing old lockers to create museum-like displays.

“My favorite piece is the wig because I designed it myself. I wanted it to face the microphone, so it would look like she was singing,” Rhone said.

They’re teenagers sifting through the past, searching for a place they belong, and finding it through the arts.

“If Tina can conquer her fears, then I most definitely can too,” Rhone said.

The next generation of artists from Sumner High School are finding their lane by reimagining pathways of the past, putting a fresh spin on the future of black history because these already historic halls have more inspiring stories to share.

“I want this school to be here forever as far as I’m concerned because it did so much for me,” Cozart said

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