As of the 2022–23 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,077 students and 80.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.5:1. There were 522 students (48.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 113 (10.5% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]
The Academies at Englewood is a four-year magnet high school established in 2002 that serves students in the ninth through twelfth grades from across Bergen County and shares the campus with Dwight Morrow.[5] The program was started by John Grieco (founder of the Bergen County Academies) who was brought in as district superintendent in an effort to diversify the student body at Dwight Morrow High School by attracting "more white and Asian students to the high school" from outside the Englewood community to an academically challenging, high-performing magnet program that was modeled after his Bergen County Academies, with students being admitted on a competitive basis and half coming from outside of the city.[6]
History
Located on a 37-acre (15 ha) park-like campus and constructed at a cost of $750,000 (equivalent to $8.2 million in 2023) from a design by architect Lawrence C. Licht, the school was opened to students in January 1933 with a capacity of 1,200 students, helping to ease overcrowding at the existing high school and junior high facilities.[7]
The school is named after Dwight Morrow, a businessman, politician, and diplomat who lived in the city. The school shares its campus with the Academies at Englewood and Janis E. Dismus Middle School. Dwight Morrow and the Academies at Englewood are located east of Miller's Pond and share the same administration. Janis E. Dismus Middle School, formerly Englewood Middle School, is located south of Miller's Pond and operates independently.
During the 1980s, the school's racial and ethnic makeup saw significant changes; school enrollment was 36% white in the late 1970s, many of them students from Englewood Cliffs, but the number of white students declined significantly during the 1980s, leaving a student body that was 92% African American or Hispanic by 1995.[10][11] Levels of violence grew at the school and academic performance declined; "There were more violent incidents reported at DMHS (Dwight Morrow High School) than any other school in Bergen County in the 1991–92 school year, and test scores remained painfully low."[12]
The Englewood Cliffs Public Schools cited poor performance at Dwight Morrow as justification for its efforts to end the sending / receiving relationship with Englewood that had existed since 1965 and began sending students from Englewood Cliffs to Tenafly High School, a high-performing school whose student body was predominantly white.[13][14] This led to a protracted court battle between Englewood and Englewood Cliffs beginning in 1985, a move characterized by Englewood residents as racist.[15][16] Court battles continued, in an attempt to desegregate the high school.
According to Assemblyman John E. Rooney, "white students from Englewood Cliffs, the district trying to end its obligation to send its students to Dwight Morrow, feared for their safety at the heavily minority institution." Most Englewood Cliffs parents have chosen private school over Dwight Morrow High School.[17]
The Academies magnet program was opened up in an attempt to attract "white and Asian students back into Englewood's schools". The opening of the new academy led to a perception by Englewood's African American community that the Academy and its diverse student body was given its own portion of the campus to operate on with highly qualified teachers and more resources, while the "overwhelmingly black and Hispanic" regular high school, Dwight Morrow, continued to operate separately on the campus with overcrowded classrooms and an inferior education. Dwight Morrow students walked out and staged a rally in September 2005 to protest against the conditions at the school: "The books are old and the classes are overcrowded,' said..., a junior. "In my history class at least five students have to stand up each day."[18]
In the pages of The Record, columnist Lawrence Aaron contrasted the Academies at Englewood, with its "longer school day, rigorous and engaging core academic curriculum, technology, upgraded classroom materials and equipment not available to Dwight Morrow students, climate reflecting high expectations, inviting classrooms", while Dwight Morrow had a "lack of classroom equipment and technology, in many classes students are either not engaged at all or are engaged in below grade-level assignments".[19]
Residents of Englewood felt that the district has worked against the progress of the high school by opening up the Academies; with greater resources devoted to the Academies, some residents felt that Dwight Morrow had been neglected.[20] About 50% of the students are from outside of Englewood. Members of Englewood's African American community said that the city and the board of education has put its minority residents second with the move. "For the past three years they've been feeling like second-class citizens in their own town, sharing a campus with another high school touted as academically superior, and getting no respect... The message to kids and parents at that 97 percent African-American and Hispanic high school is that for so-called integration to happen on the campus, you must swallow the bitter pill that tastes like apartheid."[20]
Architecture
Dwight Morrow High School has two buildings; the North building was the original structure of the school and the South building, used for the Academies at Englewood, was constructed in the 1960s. The high school's North building, with its a 100-foot (30 m) tower, was completed in 1932 and was constructed using the Collegiate Gothic architectural style.[21] The campus also shares the office of the board of education and the superintendent.[22]
Millers Pond and Janis E. Dismus Middle School are all part of the school campus.[23]
Athletics
The Dwight Morrow High School Maroon Raiders[2] compete in the Big North Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Bergen and Passaic counties, and was established following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[24] The school had previously participated in the BCSL American athletic conference of the Bergen County Scholastic League.[25] With 816 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 761 to 1,058 students in that grade range.[26] The football team competes in the Ivy White division of the North Jersey Super Football Conference, which includes 112 schools competing in 20 divisions.[27][28] The football team is one of the 12 programs assigned to the two Ivy divisions starting in 2020, which are intended to allow weaker programs ineligible for playoff participation to compete primarily against each other.[29] The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group III North for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 700 to 884 students.[30]
The boys basketball team won the Group III state championship in 1947 (against Springfield Regional—since renamed as Jonathan Dayton High School —in the finals), 1951 (vs. Woodrow Wilson High School), 1960 (vs. Moorestown High School) and 1961 (vs. Burlington Township High School), and won the Group II title in 1975 (vs. Pleasantville High School).[31] Led by 24 points from Sherman White, the 1947 team pulled away to defeat Springfield Regional by a score of 49–22 in the championship game at the Elizabeth Armory to win the Group III state title and run their record for the season to 25–0.[32] The 1951 team finished the season with a record of 23–1 after winning the Group III title with a 59–34 win against Woodrow Wilson in the championship game.[33] The 1975 team, led by future NBA player Bill Willoughby who was named to the all-tournament team, defeated defending champion Pleasantville by a score of 70–66 in the championship game to win the Group II title and finish the season with a mark of 27–2.[34] The team won the 2008 North I, Group II state sectional title, defeating Pascack Hills High School 72–65 in the tournament final.[35] The win marked the team's first sectional title since 2005, ending a two-year run by Pascack Hills.[36]
The boys track team won the spring / outdoor track state championship in Group III in 1965 (as co-champion) and in Group II in 1992.[37]
The boys track team won the Group III indoor relay championships in 1970 and 1971.[38]
Administration
Joseph Armental is the school's principal. His administration team includes an assistant principal and a vice principal.[39]
^Maroon Tribune, Dwight Morrow High School. Accessed March 22, 2022.
^Dwight Morrow High School/Academies at Englewood 2015 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed June 6, 2016. "Dwight Morrow High School is a community of learners and teachers consisting of approximately 1055 students and 125 faculty members. Our school serves Englewood and Englewood Cliffs, and our campus is the home of the largest Interdistrict Public School Choice program in New Jersey, the Academies at Englewood."
^Newman, Maria. "Education; Reasons for Hope in Englewood", The New York Times, February 3, 2002. Accessed February 2, 2024. "In addition, there is a new interim superintendent, Dr. John Grieco, who is well respected in the county and who is bringing new ideas to the district. Most significantly, Dr. Grieco has drawn up a plan to start a rigorous academy with competitive admissions at the Dwight Morrow High School to try to attract the children of wealthy families who have fled to the private schools.... With Dr. Grieco's help, the Englewood district plans to open the Academies @ Englewood in September, a competitive school that will be situated on the Dwight Morris campus and that will focus on finance, pre-engineering, law and public safety and information technology. The first year, the school will accept 104 ninth-grade students, with half from Englewood and half from the surrounding communities.... The hope is to attract more white and Asian students to the high school, which is currently 97 percent black and Hispanic, and is at the center of a protracted and expensive court fight with neighboring Englewood Cliffs."
^Spring 2012 Accreditation ActionsArchived May 1, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, The Standard; A Newsletter from the Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools, Spring 2012. Accessed November 11, 2020. "Removal of Accreditation... Dwight Morrow High School, Englewood, NJ"
^Wells, Any Stuart. Both Sides Now: The Story of School Desegregation’s Graduates, University of California Press, 2009. ISBN9780520256781 Accessed February 7, 2024. "In ninth grade he and his classmates were joined by more well-to-do white students who came down the hill from a nearby K-8 school system in Englewood Cliffs to attend Englewood’s Dwight Morrow High School. By the late 1970s, Dwight Morrow High was 57 percent black, 36 percent white, and 7 percent Hispanic.... Fewer white students enrolled each year, until, by the 1990s, there were virtually none."
^Stewart, Barbara. "School Colors", The New York Times, June 11, 1995. Accessed February 7, 2024. "At issue is a high school that is 92 percent black and Hispanic -- Dwight Morrow, in Englewood -- surrounded by largely white ones. Courts have ordered the State Board of Education to end the racial imbalance, now and forever."
^Schmidt, Peter. "N.J. Schools Debate Forced Merger To Achieve Integration", Education Week, January 8, 1992. Accessed February 7, 2024. "Englewood’s student population is more than 85 percent black or Latino, while Englewood Cliffs and Tenafly are more than 95 percent white or Asian. Englewood Cliffs has no high school. Since 1965, it has had an agreement with Englewood under which its students attend Englewood’s Dwight Morrow High School.... The students in the two districts perform differently as well, with the standardized test scores of Tenafly High School students consistently higher than those of Dwight Morrow students and among the best in the state."
^Garcia, Dan. "Opponents call lawsuit racist", The Record, March 24, 1987. Accessed February 7, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "Gathered in Ann Sparanese's Englewood home, about a dozen white parents and two black parents rendered their own verdicts in the litigation involving Englewood Cliffs, Englewood, and Tenafly: The lawsuit is elitist, racist, and reflects a deepening chasm between blacks and whites and between rich and poor, not only in Englewood, but elsewhere. 'The people in Englewood Cliffs want to create something like the all-white academies that sprang up in the South during the Civil Rights movement, and they want the state's stamp of approval for their racist action,' said Bob Guild, a Manhattan travel agent."
^Pristin, Terry. "New Jersey Daily Briefing Desegregation Plan Is Opposed", The New York Times, October 11, 1995. Accessed February 7, 2024. "The hearing was the third of five held by the State Education Department to consider the regionalization, which is meant to address racial imbalance at Dwight Morrow. Ethan Addes, an Englewood Cliffs School Board member opposed to the plan, drew loud applause when he said: 'I have been called a racist. And the only way I can prove that I am not a racist is by sacrificing my children's safety and education. The price is too high. I will not pay."'"
^Feibel, Carolyn. "Englewood students stage walkout over chaotic conditions", The Record, September 23, 2005. Accessed February 2, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "More than 200 students from Dwight Morrow High School picketed Thursday to protest crowded classrooms, disorganized schedules and chaos caused by construction delays. The underlying theme, however, was the perceived inequity that exists between students at Dwight Morrow and those enrolled in AcademiesEnglewood, the magnet program created to bring racial balance to the district. The Academies are racially diverse, but Dwight Morrow remains overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.... The gulf between the AcademiesEnglewood and the traditional Dwight Morrow school was much in evidence at Thursday's rally. The goal of the college-oriented Academies, which opened in 2002, is to raise academic standards while luring white and Asian students back into Englewood's schools."
^Aaron, Lawrence. "Righting the wrongs at Englewood schools", The Record, November 30, 2005. Accessed February 2, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "These are the contrasts noted in the state's report issued just before the holiday last week: AcademiesEnglewood: longer school day, rigorous and engaging core academic curriculum, technology, upgraded classroom materials and equipment not available to Dwight Morrow students, climate reflecting high expectations, inviting classrooms. "Students are spirited and proud of their school and opportunities.' Dwight Morrow: 'a climate of high expectations, support and standards is not evident, lack of classroom equipment and technology, in many classes students are either not engaged at all or are engaged in below grade-level assignments, students arrive late to school and to classes."
^Municipal Master Plan 2014, p. 132. City of Englewood. Accessed February 3, 2024. "It was during the first half of the twentieth century that Englewood developed many of its municipal institutions and amenities: the library, Liberty School followed by Lincoln and Cleveland Schools, Mackay Park on land given by former mayor Donald Mackay, the police department, three fire stations, and the impressive Collegiate Gothic campus of Dwight Morrow High School, which opened in 1932."
^Hayes, Melissa. "'92 dredging still an issue in Englewood", The Record, June 21, 2011. Accessed February 3, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "Millers Pond between Janis E. Dismus Middle School and Dwight Morrow High School.... Linda Grayson, chief of DEP's Bureau of Enforcement and Investigation, sent a letter to the city on March 23 saying the dredging of Millers Pond at Dwight Morrow High School in 1992 was never properly closed out."
^Cooper, Darren. "Super Football Conference creating 'Ivy Division' for struggling programs", The Record, May 1, 2019. Accessed March 24, 2021. "Seeking to restore participation and enthusiasm to high school football programs that have struggled to compete consistently, the Super Football Conference announced plans to start a 12-team 'Ivy Division' in the 2020 season. Teams that compete in the 'Ivy Division' will play exclusively against each other and won't participate in the NJISAA football playoffs.... Twelve schools from Bergen, Hudson, Essex and Morris counties have applied to compete in the Ivy Division: Bergen Tech, Cliffside Park, Dickinson, Fair Lawn, Ferris, Memorial, Dover, Dwight-Morrow, Fort Lee, Glen Ridge, Marist and Tenafly."
^"Westwood And Englewood Capture State Basketball Championships", The Record, March 19, 1951. Accessed December 15, 2020, via Newspapers.com. "Bergen County did itself proud In the N.J.S.I.A.A. basketball tournament at Elizabeth Saturday by walking off with two championships. Westwood wrapped up the Group II title by belting Ocean City 68-48, and Englewood walked off with the Group III crown by mauling Woodrow Wilson of Camden 59-34.... Englewood finished with a 23-1 record, while its junior varsity also lost only one game and its junior high school walked off with first place in the recent junior scholastic tournament."
^via Associated Press. "NJSIAA Finals Produce No Clear Champ", The Daily Journal, March 24, 1975. Accessed March 22, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Four clubs came to Brookdale vying for consecutive titles, but only two made it as Pleasantville was upset by Englewood and its superstar Bill Willoughby 70-66 Saturday. Willoughby dazzled the defending Group II champs with total show of domination scoring 27 points, pulling down 16 rebounds and blocking six shots. Willoughby was named to the all-tournament team along with Woodbridge's Mark DiDonna and Randy Adleman, Pleasantville's Reggie Miller and Lakewood's Kevin King. Willoughby paced his club (27-2) to its first state crown since 1961."
^Stapleton, Art. "Stapleton: Englewood rallies for title"Archived April 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, The Record, March 4, 2008. Accessed March 9, 2008. "The Maroon Raiders (19–8), with their first sectional title since 2005 in their back pocket, now will travel to Vernon for Thursday's State Group 2 semifinal against Lincoln."
^Staff, Dwight Morrow High School. Accessed February 2, 2024.
^Coutros, Evonne. "Television News and Notes", The Record, May 21, 1997. Accessed August 1, 2024, via ProQuest. "Aprea, now living in Englewood, where he was raised and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in 1959, played Lucas on Another World from 1989 to 1992."
^Spelling, Ian. "Playing the keys to success: Bernard Belle", (201) magazine, April 4, 2017. Accessed August 27, 2018. "Belle started playing in Reality, a band formed while he attended Englewood Junior High School. His sister, Regina – a Grammy Award-winning singer – joined the group. He continued to perform while at Dwight Morrow High School, and, in 1985, Regina paved the way for him to play in her new band, The Manhattans."
^Beckerman, Jim. "For Regina Belle, time for a special payback", The Record, October 31, 2004. Accessed June 17, 2016. "It was at Englewood's Mount Calvary Baptist Church, and then Paterson's Friendship Baptist Church (presided over by Belle's uncle, the Rev. Fred Belle), that Regina Belle began attracting attention with her vocal abilities. She sang her first solo in church at age 8; by the time she graduated from Dwight Morrow High School at age 17, she was the church's star singer."
^Rohan, Virginia. "Blast Forward", The Record, March 26, 1999. "After graduating from Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School, he headed off to Harvard..."
^"Lew Erber, coach, player, dies at 55", The Record, February 8, 1990. Accessed February 9, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Clifton native and Montclair State graduate Lew Erber, who served as offensive backfield coach for the Super Bowl XI and Super Bowl XV champion Oakland Raiders, died Tuesday in El Cajon, Calif., after a long illness. He was 55. Erber was an outstanding soccer player for Englewood High School while growing up in Oradell, serving as captain of the Maroon Raiders team that reached the state championship in 1951."
^ abHu, Winnie. "Forced to Pick a Major in High School", The New York Times, August 16, 2007. Accessed August 27, 2018. "But starting this fall, freshmen at Dwight Morrow High School here in Bergen County must declare a major that will determine what electives they take for four years and be noted on their diplomas.... The comedians David Feldman and Rick Overton, alumni of the high school, are scheduled to conduct a comedy writing workshop in October."
^ abcde"Dwight Morrow to hold fundraiser", The Record, June 20, 2007. Accessed November 19, 2007. "The celebration will feature alumni acts including musician Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, actor Clarke Peters, and comedians Rick Overton, David Feldman and Michael Dermansky. Comedian Richard Lewis will appear on video."
^Rondinaro, Gene. "Picturesque, Affluent West of Palisades", The New York Times, November 3, 1996. Accessed July 9, 2007. "A former football standout at Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, Mr. Harper was interested in finding a small, diverse community to live and raise a family in away from the media hype of New York's sports world."
^"Ex-Rocker turns 'He-Man" in Live Fantasy Show", The Star-Ledger, February 11, 1987. "....Howard grew up in Englewood and attended Dwight Morrow High School, though he regrets not graduating."
^Mansour, Josh. "Happy Birthday To Englewood's Doug Howard", Englewood Daily Voice, May 3, 2016. Accessed August 27, 2018. "Happy birthday to Englewood native and noted musician Doug Howard.... Howard attended Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, at which time he was introduced to Ernie Isley of the famed music group The Isley Brothers, who gave him his first bass lessons."
^Wilner, Paul. "Isley Brothers: A Family Affair", The New York Times, March 13, 1977. Accessed August 27, 2018. "While their older brothers toured America, the younger Isley boys enrolled successively in Englewood Junior High and Dwight Morrow High School. 'We always had lots of instruments lying around the house—Stratocaster Fenders and jazz instruments—so naturally we were interested and decided to learn how to play,' Ernie Isley said."
^Hertzel, Bob. "Janet Murk a true pioneer for women's athletics", Clarksburg Exponent Telegram, July 9, 2015. Accessed May 28, 2020. "Janet Murk, in the 1940s, had actually played for the Dwight Morrow High School boys baseball team … briefly. She played four, maybe five games, before she was called into the principal’s office. 'They called me into the principal’s office and said it wasn’t the proper way for a young lady to conduct herself, playing ball,' she said on the phone from the assisted living facility in which she now resides."
^Goldaper, Sam. "Jones, Jets' 220-Pound Rookie, Getting Gastronomical Build-Up; Defensive End Has Gained Yardage at Dinner Table but Still Is Too Light", The New York Times, September 3, 1969. Accessed August 27, 2018. "When the New York Jet players line up in the Hofstra University dining room, the waiters give a larger helping of food to Jimmie Jones than to most of the other players.... The same applies when the 22-year-old Jones is fed at his home in Englewood, N. J.... The 6-foot-4-inch Jones was an all-state end at Dwight Morrow High School before becoming one of the outstanding defensive players at Wichita State."
^Diduch, Mary. "FTC chairman returns home to Bergen", The Record, June 20, 2012. Accessed June 21, 2012. "When Jon Leibowitz was growing up in Englewood, his friends and classmates at Dwight Morrow High School knew him as smart kid who didn't flaunt his intelligence, and who was friends with everyone. Few could have imagined he would end up running the Federal Trade Commission, a powerful federal agency with more than 1,000 employees."
^Levithan, Robert. "MLK, Selma, Marriage Equality, You and Me", Huffington Post, January 20, 2015. Accessed August 27, 2018. "Dr. Martin Luther King was only 39 when he was murdered in 1968. I remember that day clearly. I was a Junior at Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, New Jersey and I was amongst about ten students who were summoned to the vice principal’s office to discuss how to ‘not have an eruption of violence’ in our school."
^Christina McHale, DB4Tennis. Accessed February 3, 2024. "For her freshman year of high school, she attended the Academy of Law and Public Safety within Dwight Morrow High School."
^Staff. "Freddie Perren", Contemporary Black Biography:Profiles from the International Black Community, p. 122. Gale, 2007. ISBN0-7876-7932-1. Accessed August 27, 2018. "At Dwight Morrow High School, Perren was a member of the marching band, the orchestra, and sang in the chorus."
^Chriastiansen, Richard. "Red-Hot Reddin Actor-Author Reaching For 'Highest Standard'", Chicago Tribune, September 14, 1986. Accessed February 17, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "The new comedy, in fact, had its origins in Reddin's own experience in Russia, when he visited Moscow shortly after his graduation from Dwight Morrow High School ('John Travolta's alma mater') in Englewood, N.J., in 1973."
^"Things to Do", The Record, December 13, 1983. Accessed March 22, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Dwight Morrow High School's drama club, The Tower Players, will stage Dracala Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 8 pm the King Hall auditorium of the school. Robert Neil will play Dracula, and Lisa Frank will portray his victim, Lucy, with the rest of Cast A.... Other members of Cast A are Jon Furr, playing Mr. Van Helsing Owen Renfroe, Dr. Seward; Glen McKelvey, Barker; Allison Norris, the attendant; Celeste Ciulla, Renfield; and Carolyn Z wicker, the maid."
^Ledesma, Ann. "Former 'wallflower' blossoms into radiant model", Home News, January 16, 1979. Accessed February 9, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Looking at gorgeous Tracey Ross, 20, no one would ever suspect that she grew up feeling like 'a misfit, a wallflower, shy'.... Miss Ross, a Brooklyn native who graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, had been a dance and theater major at Douglass."
^Stewart, Slam (Leroy Elliot)Archived August 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians. Accessed February 4, 2013. "Leroy Elliot Slam Stewart was born on September 21st, 1914 in Englewood, New Jersey. Stewart started his musical journey at age six playing the violin. Claiming he didn't care for the timbre of the violin, Stewart switched to the string bass while attending Dwight Morrow High School."
^Moss, Irv. "Education continues to stoke former Steeler", The Denver Post, January 22, 2008. Accessed January 1, 2015. "The experience took Tepe back to his roots in Englewood, N.J., and to a time when he needed the incentive of playing football to keep him in school.... Born: June 18, 1930, North Bergen, N.J. High school: Dwight Morrow, Englewood, N.J., 1946–48"
^David Townsend, WBSS Media. Accessed November 19, 2020. "While in New York, his godfather said Jackson should contact his nephew David Townsend who had been a guitarist with The Isley Brothers. The Isleys produced their band Sunrize with David and drummer / writer Everett Collins and long-time friend Tony Herbert (bass) from David's high school, Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, N.J."
^Reeves, Michael. "Travolta recalls lonely high schooldays", The StarPhoenix, September 28, 1978. Accessed June 12, 2011. "As far as academics were concerned, John was not the best student at Dwight Morrow High School. He confesses that 'I was only an average student.'"
^Modern Gymnast, November 1964. Accessed November 16, 2017. "Greg Weiss: Height , 5-6; Weight, 138; Age, 23; Ridgefield, New Jersey.... Attended high school at Dwight Morrow, Englewood, New Jersey."
^Staff. "Georgia, Jersey Gets Negro 'Firsts' In Elections", Jet, November 20, 1952. Accessed June 17, 2016. "In Englewood, N. J., John T. Wright, owner of a taxi-cab company, was elected the city's first Negro councilman."
^"John T. Wright, 50; First black councilman in Bergen", The Record, November 21, 1976. Accessed July 24, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "In 1953, as a Democrat, Mr. Wright was elected to the Englewood City Council at Age 27. He served until 1961. Born in Dumont, he moved to Englewood at Age 10 and attended Lincoln School and Dwight Morrow High School, where he played football and basketball."
^Peters, Ida. "What's Happening: Backstage at Center Stage", Baltimore Afro-American, June 2, 1984. Accessed June 12, 2011. "Tom Wright has the role of Gerald. He's 31, six feet and weighs 170 pounds. He's the son of Harold and Winifred Wright of Englewood, N.J. He graduated from Dwight Morrow High School and West Chester State College."
^Leonard, Tim. "Soccer still giving to former Dwight Morrow star Elias Zurita", The Record, January 4, 2011, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 7, 2011. Accessed August 27, 2018. "It all looked so familiar to Elias Zurita as he was watching television with his daughter, Bella, not long ago. The movie, called "Gracie," had a soccer theme, but it was the field that caught Zurita's eye. The two-time All-State selection for Dwight Morrow High School looked incredulously at the screen and swore he saw his old Englewood stomping grounds."
^D'Elia, Gianluca. "The 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' house is in N.J., in Springsteen's old neighborhood", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, May 14, 2019. Accessed January 12, 2022. "'Sabrina the Teenage Witch makes its comeback Friday in the form of a moody Netflix drama mystery just in time for Halloween.... Meanwhile, the setting for Westbridge High School, was Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood — which local viewers might recognize by its distinctive Gothic architecture and 100-foot tower."
^"Outage, not film, stalls school start", The Record, September 7, 2006. Accessed January 12, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The high school will open Monday instead of today following a three-day power outage. Last Saturday's storm cut power to the Dwight Morrow campus, including the middle school.... The decision had nothing to do with recent filming of a movie on the campus, said district spokesman Mike Polizzi. The producers of Gracie used generators and finished up Wednesday."