Kansas City-area school honors Olympian, Grammy-winning musician. But no Black alumni

Renovations at Lee’s Summit High School temporarily removed its wall of commemorative plaques honoring distinguished alumni. The reset could give the school an opportunity to address an obvious omission: Of the 116 people inducted into the the school’s Hall of Fame, not one is Black. The presence of other people of color is almost nonexistent, too.

The school opened its doors to minority students in the mid-1960s. Surely African American graduates have distinguished themselves since then. But you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at the Hall of Fame, whose latest five-member class is all white. Inductees are nominated by the public and selected by a committee composed of Lee’s Summit High graduates, staff and community members. The group clearly has work to do to correct the shameful display.

“We do believe there is a small amount of Latinx representation and do not believe there is an African American inductee at this time,” a statement from the district read.

Honorees are mostly rewarded for accomplishments after high school. Alumni are eligible for induction 10 years after graduation. Many successful Black graduates of Lee’s Summit High are worthy of consideration. Here are a few:

▪ Bobby Bell, Jr. is the son of NFL Hall of Fame player and former Chief Bobby Bell. The younger Bell starred in football at the University of Missouri in the 1980s before being drafted into the NFL. He is a longtime owner and operator of a commercial carpet cleaning business in Overland Park.

▪ Jeff Graves played basketball for the University of Kansas for two years after a stop at a junior college. Graves represented Lee’s Summit during KU’s run to the Final Four in 2003. He played professionally overseas and once owned and coached a women’s minor-league basketball team in the area.

▪ Dalton Vann was a standout athlete at Lee’s Summit in the 1980s. He was the Examiner’s 1983 Offensive Player of the Year in football and starred as a basketball player as well. Vann became the first Black head football coach in Lee’s Summit history in 2012 when he started the football program at Summit Christian Academy from scratch. Within five years, SCA had one of the best small-class programs in the area. After nearly four years in ministry work in Tennessee, Vann, an ordained minister, will be an assistant football coach at Bolivar High School in the fall.

▪ Danielle Adams is perhaps the best women’s basketball player from Lee’s Summit High. She played two years at a community college after graduation and shone at Texas A&M, leading the Aggies to a national championship in 2011. She was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player, only the second junior college graduate in NCAA history to accomplish the feat. Adams played professionally in the WNBA and internationally.

Nominations for athletes, other accomplished alumni open now

As it stands, the school doesn’t have an official Athletic Hall of Fame, although nominations for its first induction class are underway now. Maybe those mentioned above will find their rightful place in school lore. But what about other non-athletes of color who graduated from the school? Shouldn’t they be under consideration for enshrinement as well?

“I was floored when you first told me” that the latest class is absent even one person of color, Vann said. (Full disclaimer: Vann coached my oldest son as a youth basketball player). “You can’t tell me it’s not one.”

The Lee’s Summit High Hall of Fame includes notable inductees from all walks of life. Doctors, physicians, lawyers, educators, entrepreneurs, federal agents and other highly successful people are represented.

Record-setting distance runner and Olympian Matt Tegenkamp is enshrined. So is Grammy award-winning jazz musician and composer Pat Metheny. Don Cameron Thomson is among this year’s honorees. Thomson graduated in 1959. He is regarded as a pioneer in barefoot water skiing.

What are Black school children at Lee’s Summit High supposed to think when none of the honorees look like them?

Lee’s Summit High is undergoing a major renovation project slated for completion in 2023. Plaques featuring Hall of Fame honorees will be displayed in the new entry of the school. Hopefully, a Black graduate of distinction will be included by then.

Nomination forms for the Lee’s Summit High School Hall of Fame for the 2021-2022 school year are available on the school’s website. Forms and supporting materials should be submitted to LSHS at 400 SE Blue Parkway, Lee’s Summit, MO, 64063, no later than Nov. 15, 2021. Submit electronically to melodye.wehmhoener@lsr7.net By Nov. 15, 2021.