The production will use monologues, music and dance to connect San Antonio’s Black history with a new generation of young men.
SAN ANTONIO — History does not live only in books. Sometimes, it comes home to take the stage.
A new production is bringing the story of San Antonio’s trailblazing Sutton family to the historic Phillis Wheatley High School theater—the same east-side school that S.J. Sutton helped establish and once led.
“The House on Cherry Street” takes the stage Sunday, Aug. 16, at what is now the Young Men’s Leadership Academy at Phillis Wheatley.
“The theater still has the original chairs, the original flooring, the original stage,” said Cedric “Legacy City” Bellamy, the show’s writer, director and producer.
For Bellamy, the setting brings the story full circle.
“When I walk in, boom! The man I’m doing the documentary on is right there on the wall,” Bellamy said.
That man is Percy Sutton.
One man leads Bellamy to an extraordinary family
Bellamy’s interest began when he learned Sutton had represented Malcolm X as an attorney.
A San Antonio native, Sutton served during World War II as an intelligence officer with the Tuskegee Airmen. He later became a civil rights attorney, New York state lawmaker, Manhattan borough president and media entrepreneur. His investments included Black-owned radio stations, and he helped restore Harlem’s Apollo Theater as a major cultural institution.
Bellamy had already been developing a documentary about Percy Sutton when his research led him back to the rest of the family.
Percy was the youngest of 15 children born to educators Samuel and Lillian Sutton. Twelve of their children survived to adulthood, and all 12 earned college degrees before building careers in education, medicine, science, law, politics, business and public service.
Among them was G.J. Sutton, who became the first Black elected official from Bexar County and later represented San Antonio in the Texas House. Oliver Sutton became a New York Supreme Court judge, while John Sutton worked as a scientist and studied under George Washington Carver.
The family also operated businesses that included a mattress factory, skating rink and funeral home.
“All 12 kids went on to make history,” Bellamy said. “There’s a lot of things they covered—politics, entertainment, education.”
Their story was rooted in the family home built in 1896 at 430 N. Cherry St., which still stands today.
Historical accounts identify Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Mary McLeod Bethune and Thurgood Marshall among the prominent Black leaders who visited the Sutton home. At a time when segregation barred Black travelers from many hotels, homes like the Sutton residence became important gathering places.
“Cherry Street, we pass by there every day not knowing the history that’s been there,” Bellamy said. “All that history just sits right here, and we go by it every day and take it for granted until we don’t have it anymore.”
The family’s commitment to young people continued into the next generation. In the late 1940s, daughter Lillian Sutton-Taylor created the Teenage Canteen, an organization open to young people regardless of social status. Historical records estimate it served about 5,000 young people during its existence.
Telling history through music and movement
Bellamy did not want to bring that history forward through a conventional lecture.
“The House on Cherry Street” is a monologue-based stage production combining jazz, hip-hop, tap, ballet and interpretive dance. The music is designed to place the audience inside the different eras represented in the play.
“The music, it captures that era, that feel of that time period,” Bellamy said.
The all-Black cast includes talent from across San Antonio. For some cast members, it will be their first public-speaking role.
One performer, a retired Navy veteran identified as Mr. Buckley, gives a voice to the house itself.
“If the house could talk, he’ll sound like that,” Bellamy said.
Bellamy, an Army veteran and independent artist, was recently honored as producer of the year at the Texas Rap Music Hall of Fame and Cultural Excellence Awards.
He said the Wheatley alumni who came before today’s students are also central to the production.
Bellamy wants them to know their accomplishments and experiences matter — and that they helped make this production possible.
Bringing the Sutton story back to Wheatley
Historic Wheatley opened in 1933 as an all-Black high school and closed in 1970 during desegregation. The Young Men’s Leadership Academy opened in 2015 and moved to the Wheatley campus in 2017.
S.J. Sutton helped lead the effort to establish Phillis Wheatley and became its first principal after spending decades educating Black students in San Antonio.
Today, his portrait overlooks the school’s hallway.
“Every day, I’ll stand in the hallway and you see Mr. Sutton towering above us in this beautiful painting,” Principal Derrick Brown said. “I wonder how he did this work for 40 years.”
Brown said he promised Wheatley alumni that their experiences would remain part of the school’s identity.
“I always think about the history, and I promised the Wheatley alumni that we would share their stories with all of our students,” Brown said.
When Bellamy asked to stage the production at Wheatley, Brown said his answer was immediately “Yes.”
Brown wanted to learn more about Sutton, but he also saw an opportunity to restore arts experiences lost because of education cuts.
“We’ve lost some of our fine arts programming, so we’re always looking for ways to connect our students with the things that were lost,” Brown said. “We think the arts are very important in the upbringing of young men.”
For one graduating student who hopes to become a dancer, that impact has already begun. Brown said the production allowed him to connect the student with dancers involved in the play.
“They need to see positive role models,” Bellamy said. “They love music? We got it. They love dancing? We got it.”
Bellamy said the goal is to make creative careers feel attainable.
“Everything they’ve seen, they think is untouchable,” Bellamy said. “We make it reachable for them.”
Building opportunities after the curtain closes
The production’s impact will continue after its final bow.
Bellamy said all proceeds will be invested back into the community. A portion will help renovate the historic Sutton home, while another portion will help the Young Men’s Leadership Academy purchase sound systems and studio equipment.
“We have a studio that has been unused and a little bit dilapidated,” Brown said. “He’s already gone in and started rebuilding this, and we’re already working on some programming for next year.”
Brown hopes students will eventually use the space to create their own production about Texas and American history.
“We are now in the very early stages of taking what I’ve seen Cedric do, sharing it with our students, who will then create their own play on Texas and American history from their viewpoint,” Brown said.
Students could then perform their work for classmates, parents and the surrounding community.
Bellamy is also preparing to open StreetLigion Academy, a performing arts school intended to help young artists develop their talents while learning the business side of the industry.
“Opportunity is the cure for poverty,” Bellamy said. “Performing arts equates to financial literacy.”
Bellamy said the Sutton family’s example is about more than remembering names and accomplishments. It is about taking action.
“These are the things the Suttons instilled in the community: belief, manifestation. Don’t wait for it — organize it and do it,” Bellamy said.
“When [the students] leave this place, I want them to feel inspired, motivated,” he continued. “Go out there, take initiative, build and be the change. Don’t wait on it.”
How to attend
“The House on Cherry Street” will be performed Sunday, Aug. 16, at the Young Men’s Leadership Academy at Phillis Wheatley, 415 Gabriel St.
Doors open at 5 p.m. and the production begins at 6 p.m.
Tickets and additional information are available at StreetLigionNation.com.