	In 1973 Sumbi was the Audio-Visual Librarian at the Los Cerritos branch. She was involved in leading the Our Authors Study Club, a group dedicated to promoting black history and culture in Los Angeles. In 1991, she was involved in a controversy about a Langston Hughes quote, used on a poster about gay history. Librarian Elizabeth Martinez recalled Sumbi as "the compass who calmly brought reality to our work" in the Way Out Project, a federal grant to bring cultural programming to Chicano and African-American libraries in Los Angeles.