History
Construction of the high school was completed in 1932 and classes began in September 1933. Max J. Herzberg was the first Principal and remained as the leader of the high school for 18 years until his retirement in 1951.
The high school is home to the New Deal era mural "Enlightenment of Man" painted by Michael Lenson who was director of New Jersey mural activities for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
The Weequahic section of Newark, which is the neighborhood sending students to the high school, was described as it was in the 1930s and early 1940s by Weequahic alumnus Philip Roth in The Plot Against America.
Weequahic High School has an active alumni association that raises scholarship monies for the students.
A documentary film, Heart of Stone (2009), is about Ron Stone, the recently deceased principal of the high school and his efforts to work with students and further the mission of the high school. This documentary was presented at the Sundance Film Festival and has been shown in selected venues.
Read more about this topic: Weequahic High School
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“There are two great unknown forces to-day, electricity and woman, but men can reckon much better on electricity than they can on woman.”
—Josephine K. Henry, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 15, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)