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.