History edit

Camden High School was established in 1891 and was known as the Camden Manual Training High School in that time period. The school was built in a similar styles of the Center Philadelphia high schools, which were known to have ” cutting edge innovation”.[1]It was located on 123 Federal Street in 1891". Arthur Truscott and Pail Armon Davis III were the architects that designed the school. In 1891, the school accepted 48 boys then 3 years later, they accepted a group of girls. Due to the rapid population increase of the school, It had to expand and relocate to Haddon and Newton Avenues.[2]

On May 9 1968, 100 white citizens, mostly parents, marched to Camden Mayor Alfred R. Pierce's home and the demanded protection for the white students from the students of color who had closed down Camden High School. The students of color were fighting for administrative and curriculum changes. They wanted more courses on African American culture and history in school and also the appointment of an African American principle and athletic coaches. The Mayor planned to call in the police to deal with the situation at the school but he did not let the parents know. The parents were not going to send their children back to school until the situation was resolved. Charles V. Koppenhaver,The Principal, told the students of color that he would be able to retire at the end of the next month and he would do so for them.[3]

In the Early 1900s, discrimination was a problem that people of different races faced and in turn it affected the life students of color in Camden High School. on April 4 1910, Attorney Powell K . Martin wrote a letter to the board of education in Camden public school district. In the letter he talked about how the children of color we being treated unfairly by their teachers. Within the same time frame, several parents of the children sent messages to the boards complaining about the conditions too. This caused the board to take action to help with the racial issue problems in the school.[4]

In 2003, Camden High School was named as one of the most dangerous high schools in new jersey by the Department of Education.[5]

In 2008, there was a fight in the cafeteria of the school. 18 teenagers were arrested after this event and there was a police with a bruised face. This same year, there was a 14 year old student that was brought a gun to the school and the high School had to change their principal. [6]

Demolition edit

 
Constuction Work on Camden High School after the demolition

In 2008, Governor Chris Christie plans were to renovate Camden High School . He approved a budget of $100 million for renovation until in 2011, he decided that It was not be the best way to solve the problems of the school.[7] This ultimately lead to the decision to destroy and rebuild the high school because it was much more economical to rebuild a new school than to renovate the old school. The school will be demolished after the end of the 2016/2017 school year[8].On  November 27 2017, the attempt to demolish Camden High School by the Camden High School parent association was denied by Judge Nan S. Famular . It was denied because the superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard and the city school board as defendants said that it was a violation of New Jersey Register of Historic Places Act to destroy the high school. Mo'Neke Ragsdale, a member of the Camden High PTA, believed that putting resources towards saving the school was not worth the effort but still wanted to save the school. The final decision was ruled by a state Judge superior to demolish the high school . The part of the school that were to be demolished are the ones that were where built before 1917. They would be replaced with a $133 million dollar budget for academic buildings that would be considered state-of-the-art.[9] Alumini of Camden High School fought to save the school. "Stop the Demolition of Camden High"" was a group lead by Mo'Neke Ragsdale fought to preserve the old Camden High School. They were trying to add Camden High School to the list of National Register of Historic Places. They wanted the construction to be on the back of the school because they had over 18 acres of land. [10]The students will use the Cooper B. Hatch Middle school for their classes while construction continues in their school. [11]As of 2019 ,the construction of the new Camden High School is expected to be finished by 2021.[12]


  1. ^ Spencer, John. "Public Education: High Schools". The Encyclopeida of Greater Philadelphia. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  2. ^ "CAMDEN HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY". WayBack Machine. Archived from the original on 2013-08-31. Retrieved 2019-04-15.
  3. ^ Arnoldspecial, Martin (1968-05-10). "100 Whites March on Camden Mayor's Home: They Demand Protection for Students After Negroes Close High School". New York times. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  4. ^ Reiss, Fred. (2005). Public education in Camden, N.J. : from inception to integration. New York: iUniverse, Inc. ISBN 0595351492. OCLC 62169434.
  5. ^ Newman, Maria (2003-08-10). "BRIEFINGS: EDUCATION; DANGEROUS SCHOOLS". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  6. ^ Fahim, Kareem (2008-05-18). "Instead of Fistfights, Fashion at a Troubled High School". New York Times. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  7. ^ Steele, Allison (2016-10-05). "'Castle on the Hill' to be torn down, new Camden school coming in 2021". The inquirer. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  8. ^ Staff, SNJ Today. "Camden High School Closes Doors After 126 Years". www.snjtoday.com. Retrieved 2019-04-07.
  9. ^ Trethan, Phaedra (2017-12-08). "As fight to preserve Camden High fades, images of new school emerge". Courier Post. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  10. ^ Perez, Walter (2017-06-20). "Final class from Camden High's 101-year-old building graduates". 6abc. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  11. ^ Trethan, Phaedra (2017-12-08). "As fight to preserve Camden High fades, images of new school emerge". Courier Post. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  12. ^ "Design proposed for new Camden High School". Courier-Post. Retrieved 2019-03-31.