Public Arts School Proposed For Bergen County In Englewood

ENGLEWOOD, NJ — A grassroots group has proposed a public high school for the arts in Englewood in a historic building downtown.

The Advisors & Supporters group is "exploring the possibility" of transforming the Russell C. Major Liberty School (12 Tenafly Road) into a new Liberty School for the Arts.

The Bergen County Technical Schools and New York City's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts would be involved in the proposed school, a news release said.

"The group emphasizes this concept is only at the proposal stage," the group said. "Extensive public engagement will be sought. While interest has been expressed, no commitments by Bergen County or the City of Englewood have been made."

The Liberty School was built 115 years ago, and currently houses the Department of Recreation and YWCA programs. The city of Englewood bought the 2.25-acre site for $11.5 million in 2003, documents show.

The city sent out a request for proposals last year.

"The proposal includes a plan and financing for a much-needed Englewood Community Center," the group said. "This is not an either/or question, therefore, but both/and. The proposed development will provide Englewood with both a nationally ranked high school and a dedicated building architected from the ground up to function effectively as community center."

Art and activism in Englewood

The school is named for Russell Cameron Major, a civil rights leader who fought to integrate Englewood's schools. He died in 1997 at the age of 65, according to his obituary in The Bergen Record. The mayor ordered city flags to be flown at half-staff when Major died.

Major and Englewood parents integrated Cleveland Elementary School in 1962, a year before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the March on Washington.

"Born in 1932, Mr. Major attended Englewood's public schools during an era of de facto segregation in which blacks and whites attended separate neighborhood schools because they lived in largely segregated neighborhoods," Record staff writer Richard Cowen wrote in the obituary.

Major was also a star wrestler at Dwight Morrow High School and a youth league football coach.

During the push to integrate Englewood schools, he asked white parents of Cleveland school students and Black parents of Lincoln school students to take their kids out of class and start "Freedom Schools" in their homes.

The state commissioner of education ordered Englewood to integrate Cleveland School, according to Major's obituary.

He was on Englewood's Board of Education from 1975-1993, his obituary said.

"As a school board member, Mr. Major continued to preach the necessity of integration, even as Englewood's whites fled to private schools and Englewood Cliffs officials looked to back out of the deal that sent their students to Dwight Morrow High School," Cowen wrote in Major's obituary.

In the news release, the Advisors & Supporters highlighted the numerous artists who have touched Englewood and been a part of the community: The Sugar Hill Gang, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, Eddie Murphy, Alicia Keys, John Travolta, George Benson, the Isley Brothers, and Sarah Jessica Parker are all named in the news release.

"Leading arts and cultural institutions are based in the community, including Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC), the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home of The Actors Fund of America, and Arts Horizon," the Advisors & Supporters said.

The group is sponsored by the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation.

"This unique opportunity can only be realized through the interest, engagement, and participation of the entire community," the group said.

"(We) plan to demonstrate to Englewood and Bergen County residents the importance of having this extraordinary institution in their midst, as an investment returning many times its cost over the long-term."

Several performers and artists recorded exclusive videos with the group, talking about how the arts touched their lives and can shape a new generation. Click here to view the videos from Grammy-winning jazz musician Russell Malone, actor and teaching artist Andrea L. Patterson. Broadway actor Rebecca Eichenberger, and more.

Patch has requested more information about plans for the school and community center.