Sandy Springs Resident Produces Film on Historic High School

It may be that the final remnants of a Westfield High School building, outside Birmingham, Ala., were not meant to come down until Sonja Tonpea made her last visit.

For 65 years, the high school served students from the unique Westfield Village community and closed its doors in 1971. Parts of the school’s annex building were all that remained until recently, and even appear in Tonpea’s documentary film, ‘Westfield’ Struggles to Success.

The Sandy Springs resident graduated from Westfield in '71. She visited the site, this summer, after the film was completed and unexpectedly found bulldozers there tearing down the final pieces of the building.

“It was so shocking,” she said. “I didn’t think to get a brick. At least, we could have gotten 10 bricks and put them on a wall."

Tonpea, 60, is executive producer of ‘Westfield’ Struggles to Success. The film premiered during a red carpet event at Morehouse School of Medicine, on Friday evening, Aug. 9.

Westfield would be notable enough with such graduates as baseball legend Willie Mays and Federal Judge U.W. Clemon, but it’s the community’s story that Tonpea brings to the screen through documentary director Tony Furlow.  

Tonpea, a Sandy Springs Rotarian, is an unlikely film executive. She’s a registered nurse and owns a home healthcare company. The idea of a film came to her a few years ago during a visit to Birmingham.

“I thought, ‘We need to tell our story,’ " she said. “In this film you see [people] who can tell what happened during our era. I want it to resonate with young people especially.”

The African American community of Westfield Village was created in 1906 when U.S. Steel bought a mining camp from the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. According to Tonpea, U.S. Steel designed the town where families rented their homes in order to maintain a strong a labor base.

“We had schools, churches, community centers, doctors offices and a commissary,” Tonpea said. “The community was everything. The bond was so tight.”

In 1963, U.S. Steel disbanded the town and the families moved to other communities near Westfield.

“I often tell people that it was the best thing that happened. Everybody then became [first-time] homeowners,” Tonpea said. 

Click on the attached video for the movie trailer.