The original East Orange High School building, facing Winans Street, opened to students in 1891. An addition on Walnut Street was added in 1953. The school was closed when East Orange Campus High School opened in 2002, combining both East Orange High School and Clifford Scott High School.[1] Demolition of the old high school began in 2005.[2]
In 1933, African American student and future civil rights activist Robert L. Carter staged a protest against an official school policy that restricted black students to using the school's pool on Fridays after the school had closed, with male and female students segregated by gender, after which the pool would be emptied, cleaned out and refilled with water before the start of the next school week. Having read that the New Jersey Supreme Court banned the practice of racial segregation, and despite threats of expulsion from teachers and his inability to swim, Carter entered the pool with fellow white students during times when access to the pool was forbidden to black students, ultimately leading the district to close the pool.[3][4][5][6]
While serving in New Jersey General Assembly from 1964 to 1972, Kenneth T. Wilson was also employed as a teacher at East Orange High School, where he taught civics and American history.[7]
In September 2009, a new $143 million, 309,000-square-foot (28,700 m2) facility opened on the former East Orange High School site. This school consisting of an elementary school and middle/high school, the new Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts was among the largest and most technologically advanced schools ever built in the state of New Jersey, with extensive performing arts facilities which meet or exceed the highest professional standards.[8]
In 1896, East Orange was one of the founding member schools of the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association, the state's first athletic conference; created and operated by students, the conference consisted of nine public and private high schools located across the state, competing in track and field, football and tennis.[9]
Begun in 1897, East Orange had an annual Thanksgiving Day football rivalry with Barringer High School that had been the nation's longest-running continuous rivalry, played for 91 consecutive years until 2006, when scheduling conflicts interfered with the annual tradition; traditionally, the Left-Footed Kicker trophy is awarded to the winning team, with games attracting as many as 13,000 fans until the 1970s, when both teams saw their football programs deteriorate.[10]
In March 1930, Gordon Chalmers won the title in the 100-yard backstroke at the national interscholastic aquatic champions at Columbia University, leading East Orange High School to a second-place team finish.[11]
John Amos (1939–2024, class of 1958), actor who played James Evans Sr. on the 1970s television series Good Times[15]
Betty Bronson (1906–1971), television and film actress who began her career during the silent film era after leaving school to benefit her film career[16]
Herbert Brucker (1898–1977), journalist, teacher, and national advocate for the freedom of the press, who served as editor-in-chief of the Hartford Courant[18]
^Reed, Roy. "Robert L. Carter, an Architect of School Desegregation, Dies at 94", The New York Times, January 3, 2012. Accessed September 11, 2016. "Mr. Carter recalled experiencing racial discrimination as a 16-year-old in East Orange, N.J. The high school he attended allowed black students to use its pool only on Fridays, after classes were over. After he read in the newspaper that the State Supreme Court had outlawed such restrictions, he entered the pool with white students and stood up to a teacher's threat to have him expelled from school."
^Staff. Fizgerald's Legislative Manual, State of New Jersey; 1971 edition, p. 394. J.A. Fitzgerald, 1971. Accessed September 11, 2016. "Assemblyman Wilson is a social studies teacher at East Orange High School and teaches courses In United States History, Advanced Placement American History and Civics."
^Epstein, Sue. "East Orange performing arts school opens with celebrity glitz", 'NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, October 24, 2009. Accessed September 11, 2016. "The $143-million state-of-the-art facility opened its doors to more than 1,000 students last month, but today was its formal unveiling.... The new school on Winans Street combines two old schools into one 309,000-square-foot facility of four buildings that include a 400-seat auditorium, an 800-seat auditorium and a production studio for the TV concentration."
^Staff. "Old Rivalry Returns to a Big Welcome", The New York Times, November 25, 1988. Accessed September 11, 2016. "But this game is different from most. The East Orange-Barringer series began in 1897 and was the longest unbroken holiday rivalry in the country until two years ago, when the teams were forced to play each other in September because of conference scheduling commitments."
^Lombardi, Patrick. "Black History NJ: John Amos"Archived 2019-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, Black History – New Jersey, February 26, 2016. Accessed September 11, 2016. "John A. Amos Jr. was born in Newark, New Jersey on December 27, 1939. In 1958, he graduated from East Orange High School."
^Hanson, Bruce K. Peter Pan on Stage and Screen, 1904–2010, 2d ed., p. 127. McFarland & Company, 2011. ISBN9780786486199. Accessed November 6, 2017. "Born Elizabeth Ada Bronson in Trenton, New Jersey, on November 17, 1907, she left East Orange High School and convinced her parents to let her move to California to aid her career in films."
^Flannery, Gerald v., ed. Commissioners of the FCC, 1927-1994, p. 181. University Press of America, 1995. ISBN9780819196699. "Tyrone Brown was born in the Tidewater area of Virginia on November 5, 1942.... At East Orange High School, he was a top student, an athlete, and the first black president of the student council."
^Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, Volume 203, Part 1, p. 269. J.A. Fitzgerald, 1988. Accessed April 1, 2019. "Ms. Bush was born in East Orange March 16, 1953. She attended East Orange High School and Cornell University, where she received her degree in 1975."
^Staff. "Was Native of East Orange, N. J.", The New York Times, May 18, 1927. Accessed September 11, 2016. "A year ago Major Geiger was injured slightly in a collision between two planes at Langley Field. He was 42 years old. Born at East Orange, he attended the East Orange High School, and was graduated from West Point in 1908."
^"You Cannot Eclipse Ann Harding", Hedgerow Theatre. Accessed November 6, 2017. "Ann first appeared on the stage at the East Orange High School, in New Jersey, where she surprised the audience with her interpretation of the seductive spy, Theda Bara."
^Naomi Long Madgett & Lotus Press, Broadside Lotus Press. Accessed December 16, 2020. "When she was eighteen months old, the family moved to East Orange, New Jersey where her father became pastor of Calvary Baptist Church. At the age of thirteen, her first published poem appeared in the Orange Daily Courier. A graduate of Ashland Grammar School and beginning freshman at East Orange High School, she moved again to St. Louis, Missouri where her father served as pastor of Central Baptist Church for the next four years."
^A Portrait of a Scientist, Smithsonian Institution Archives. Accessed January 23, 2023. "Evelyn Groesback Mitchell was born in East Orange, N.J. She is a graduate of the East Orange High School, where she distinguished herself for her originality in science and art."
^Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, Volume 164, p. 278. J.A. Fitzgerald, 1940. Accessed November 6, 2017. "C. Milford Orben (Rep., Millburn) - Mr. Orben was born In Newark, New Jersey, on June 28, 1808 : son of Charles S. and Mabel Orben. Educated East Orange Grammar and High Schools, Pennsylvania State College."
^Jennings, Rob. "How growing up in a N.J. city shaped one of country music’s biggest stars", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, November 27, 2022. Accessed November 12, 2023. "Rabbitt appears to have gotten his musical interest from his father, who played the fiddle and accordion. It is believed he attended East Orange High School but did not graduate."
^Staff. Fitzgerald's Legislative Manual, State of New Jersey; 1960 edition, p. 338. J.A. Fitzgerald, 1960. Accessed September 11, 2016. "He Is a graduate of Elmwood Grammar School, East Orange High School and Rutgers University, where he received a Bachelor of Letters degree in 1930."