Origins of Segregation & Legal Context (1878-1948)

May 18, 1878
Englewood establishes a segregated “Colored School” for approximately 65 African American children.

1881
New Jersey passes a statute prohibiting racial segregation in public schools.

1884
The New Jersey Supreme Court upholds the 1881 law. African American parents in Englewood protest school segregation. In response to the ruling and sustained community pressure, Englewood closes the Colored School and merges its students into the Brick School (later Lincoln School).

1890
Nordhoff School is erected on Grand Avenue.

1926
Roosevelt School Opens in the 2nd ward

1928
Black students become 80% of the Lincoln School student body.

1931
Nordhoff School is torn down.

1938
The Englewood Board of Education, responding to a growing Black population, creates a segregated junior high school program at Lincoln School with an emphasis on vocational education. This action further concentrates Black students at Lincoln and formalizes racial separation at the secondary level.

1947
The New Jersey State Constitution explicitly bans segregation in public education.

1948
The “Princeton Plan,” implemented in Princeton, New Jersey, reorganizes schools by grade rather than neighborhood and becomes a national model for northern school integration.

Post-Brown Era & Early Englewood Challenges (1954-1959)

May 17, 1954
Brown v. Board of Education declares segregated public schools unconstitutional.

1954
A lawsuit filed by Englewood parents and led by Constance Baker Motley alleges that Englewood redraws school boundaries to concentrate Black students at Lincoln School while excluding them from Liberty School. At this time, Lincoln enrolls approximately 532 Black students and 9 white students, while fewer than 20 Black students attend the predominantly white Quarles, Roosevelt, and Cleveland schools.

October 20–November 1, 1954
State Commissioner of Education Frederick Raubinger conducts hearings on Englewood’s school districting policies.

May 20, 1955
Raubinger orders redistricting and the merger of junior high schools, prompting plans for a new integrated central middle school on Tryon Avenue near Dwight Morrow High School. The school ultimately opens in 1961.

Escalation & Statewide Pressure (1960-1961)
 
1960
The sit-in movement begins in the South and influences civil rights activism nationwide.

May 1961
The Freedom Rides begin.

May 31, 1961
Taylor v. Board of Education (New Rochelle) orders desegregation and busing, earning the nickname the “Brown of the North.”

June, 1961 
Deborah Spruill demanded the school board hold a special meeting to address racial imbalance at Lincoln School. Other sources suggest that it was her husband, John Spruill, secretary of the Bergen County NAACP who stood up at a Englewood Board of Education meeting and demanded the schools be integrated.

August 1961
The Englewood Board of Education holds private meetings with selected community members to discuss integration.

September 1961
The New Jersey NAACP launches a statewide school integration campaign that includes Englewood.

September 5, 1961
Englewood Superintendent Harry L. Stearns announces a study of racial concentration in Englewood schools. The NAACP agrees to await the findings, scheduled for February 1, 1962.

September–October 1961
A petition bearing more than 400 signatures is submitted to the Englewood Board of Education protesting segregation.

October 19, 1961
The NAACP holds a public meeting focused on Englewood education.

November–December 1961
Four Human Relations Workshops examine segregation in schools and housing, emphasizing their interconnected nature.

Late 1961
Bergen County CORE joins pickets of 15 segregated Baltimore restaurants. During this campaign, future Englewood City Council member Shirley Lacy helps integrate Hollander’s Restaurant on 25th Street.

Dircet Action, Litigation & Protest (1962)

February 1, 1962

Nine Black children and their parents are denied entry to Quarles School. Protesters occupy City Hall after the school board votes 5–0 to uphold the denial. Eleven demonstrators are arrested, marking the first sit-in arrests north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Barbara Kay and Anne Baer refused to pay the $10 bail and remained in jail for several more days. In 1961 Kay had been arrested in Tennessee for participating in the freedom rides.

February 2, 1962
Supporters picket City Hall and the Bergen County Jail.

February 5, 1962
A federal lawsuit challenging Englewood’s neighborhood school policy is filed and later dismissed.

February 6–9, 1962
An economic boycott of downtown Englewood merchants begins, demanding the release of the segregation study.

February 15, 1962
The “Englewood Eleven” are cleared of disorderly conduct charges by County Judge Benjamin Galanti.

February 15–17, 1962
Six Black parents stage a sit-in at Governor Richard Hughes’s office, demanding immediate state action.

June 13, 1962
Teaneck Board of Education adopts "open enrollment" plan for its schools.

July 9, 1962
Federal courts dismiss segregation suits involving Englewood, Montclair, and Orange.

July 31, 1962
Mayor Austin Volk blocks funding for Englewood’s desegregation plan.

August 19, 1962
A rally for school integration at Mackay Park draws approximately 500 people. The formation of the Englewood Movement is announced at the rally.

August 21–24, 1962
Leadership and strategy divisions emerge within the Englewood Movement.

Boycotts, Rulings & Implementation (1962-1963)

September 3, 1962
Members of Englewood CORE picket the Fair Lawn Beach Club to protest racial segregation.

September 5–7, 1962
A boycott of Lincoln School takes place, with roughly two-thirds of students staying home.

September 7, 1962
A sympathy boycott occurs at Liberty School, and multiple petitions are filed with the State Education Department.

February 22, 1963
Emancipation Assembly at Lincoln School. The Rev Fred Shuttlesworth leads the meeting stresses connection between Birmingham and Englewood.

February 26, 1963
A second boycott of Lincoln School begins. By the end of April 25 students are still observing the boycott.

April 1, 1963
Raubinger conducts hearings in Hackensack on Englewood’s school system.

April 23, 1963
15 black students from Lincoln, led by parent Virginia Wilson, try to enroll in Cleveland School. Thorlief M. Henriksen turned them away.

April 26, 1963
36 parents were found guilty of violating truancy laws for their role in the Lincoln School boycott. The parents were fined $5 for the first day of the boycott.

May 15, 1963
Raubinger orders Orange to come up with a plan desegregate the 99% black Oakwood elementary school by July 1.

May 2, 1963
The Birmingham Children’s Crusade begins.

May 6, 1963
Eight Black students begin a six-week sit-in at Cleveland School. Their parents were able to get them in through the side door while other parents were talking to the principal about registering their children. They entered three six grade classes two or three to a class. They stayed for three hours and left with the white students when the school day ended for a teachers conference.

May 7, 1963
The second day 14 Lincoln students showed up at Cleveland and found the entrance blocked by Principal Henrikson. He said he would not allow them to enter because they were not registered. Two policemen were stationed at the school and all of the other doors except the front door remained locked to prevent a recurrence of the previous days events. The protesting children and parents sat down on the front and blocked entrance for the white students. The white students waited in the playground while Henrikson deliberated. He finally relented and allowed the students to enter.

May 8, 1963
30 black students gained access to the school. The Lincoln students took place in line with the regular classes and walked in. Protest leader Gloria Thweat alleges that olice pushed her to the ground. Superintendent Shedd said the students would be treated courteously as "unauthorized visitors" but would not be allowed to participate in class.

May 9, 1963
After parents agreed to remain off school grounds, Englewood Superintendent Shedd agrees to unlock Cleveland School doors and allow black students to attend as "unauthorized visitors" and would still be excluded from class. 

May 9, 1963
A meeting is called by the conciliation committee of the Englewood Ministerial Alliance to try to resolve the school dispute. The group was made up of three white ministers, two black ministers, and a rabbi. The NAACP, C.O.R.E, and the Englewood Movement were not invited.

May 15, 1963
Teaneck Board of Education strengthens its "open enrollment" policy.

May 16, 1963
In a landmark ruling, State Commissioner of Education orders Orange says that the 99% black Oakwood elementary school constitued racial imbalance. He said that intention did not matter and that this racial imbalance constituted a deprivation of educational opportunity. Orange complies by sending all children in 1st - 3rd grades  to one school and children in 4th-6th to another school.

May 17, 1963
In response to the Orange ruling, the Englewood Movement calls off its plan to extend the Cleveland sit-in to Quarles and Roosevelt.

May 20, 1963
The Birmingham–Englewood Mass Rally takes place. Two students from Birmingham, William Douthard and Isaac Reynolds, speak at the rally. Douthard praises the children leading the Cleveland sit-in, stating that “the sit-in children are doing what their parents should have done 10–15 years ago.” James Farmer and Adam Clayton Powell also speak.

May 28, 1963
6 year old Hugh Knight stabbed and suffered a small wound on the back of his leg while participating in the Cleveland sit-in.

June 3, 1963
A group of 100 ministers, parents, and children marched from Lincoln School to Cleveland school singing hymns and carrying signs. The group escorted a group of 30 students into the school who were participating in the sit-in.

June 18, 1963
Roy Wilkins led march from Lincoln to Cleveland Schools.

June 19, 1963
The sit-in students and their parents protested the Cleveland graduation with signs that read "Will Englewod Graduate into the 20th century?"

June 20, 1963
The last day of classes at Cleveland before summer break. The sit-ins end.

July 2, 1963
Raubinger orders Englewood to reduce racial concentration at Lincoln School.

July 29, 1963,
Emglewood adopts the "Proposal of a Plan to Comply with the Decision of the State Commissioner of Education of New Jersey Directing the Englewood Board of Education to Reduce the Extreme Concentration of Negro Pupils in the Lincoln School." 

August 23, 1963
The New Jersey State Board of Education upholds Englewood’s desegregation plan. Students from Lincoln school would be transferred to the three predominately white schools, Cleveland, Quarles, and Roosevelt. The city's sixth graders would attend a new central sixth grade at the old Englewood Junior High and Lincoln would retain a kindergarten.

August 28, 1963
The March on Washington takes place, featuring Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

September, 1963
Plainfield implements integration plan to desegrate Washington elementary by turning it into a central 6th grade. NAACP says the plan doesn't go far enough. Black parents argued the plan did not address the other 5 schools in Plainfield that had over 50% black enrollment. The state argued that racial imbalance does not automatically equal segregation.

September 5, 1963
Englewood Board of Education begins to implement part of the desegregation plan by transferring 125 black students to the predominately white Quarles,Roosevelt, and Cleveland.

September 5, 1963
Mass protests and another sit-in occur at Cleveland School and sit-in also occcurred at Roosvelt and Quarles in response to delays in implementing desegregation. Six black mothers were arrested at Cleveland school and arraigned in municipal court with disrupting normal school procedure and trespassing. In total 68 children sat-in at the three schools.

September 7, 1963
Councilman Vincent Tibbs urges the protesting parents to abide by Gov Hughes' plea to end the protests. The protesting parents agree to a moratoirum on the protests but vow to resume protests if there are any more delays.

October 11, 1963
Gertrude P. Fuller et al. filed a lawsuit in feeral courts to overturn Englewood's integration plan. The lawsuit was supported by Save Our Neighborhood Schools (SONS) group.

October 28, 1963
Englewood’s integration plan takes effect. Lincoln School closes, a centralized intermediate school opens, and approximately 350 students are reassigned from Lincoln to the three predominately white elementary schools, Quarles, Roosevelt and Cleveland.

January 3, 1964
Judge Gordon Brown overturned the conviction and fine of $25 for the six black mothers arrested at the September sit-ins.

February 1964
A pre-kindergarten pilot program begins at the former Lincoln School site.

May 28, 1964
Teaneck Board of Education passes mandatory integration plan.

July 3, 1964
Gertrude P. Fuller and SONS lawsuit to overturn Englewood's integration plan is dismissed.