View source for Samuel Gompers High School

{{Short description|Defunct public school in New York City}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{about|the school in the Bronx|other schools named Gompers|Gompers School (disambiguation)}}

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'''Samuel Gompers Career and Technical Education High School''' was a [[Public school (government funded)|public]] [[vocational school]] for grades 9–12 located in East Morrisania, [[The Bronx|Bronx]], [[New York (state)|New York]], named for [[American Federation of Labor]] founder [[Samuel Gompers]]. The school was founded in 1930 as '''Samuel Gompers Industrial High School for Boys'''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/07/14/archives/gompers-school-to-be-begun-in-fall-plans-for-industrial-high-in.html|title=Gompers School to be begun in fall|date=July 14, 1930|work=The New York Times|accessdate=10 July 2012}}</ref> It was closed in 2012.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-02-23/news/31093044_1_gompers-students-newer-schools-ninth-graders|title=Struggling Gompers HS nixed to make way for five other career and technical schools in the Bronx|last=Lestch|first=Corinne|date=February 23, 2012|work=New York Daily News|accessdate=10 July 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610174209/http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/struggling-gompers-hs-nixed-career-technical-schools-bronx-article-1.1026379|archive-date=10 June 2015}}</ref>

==Public art==
Samuel Gompers High School is the site for a notable [[Federal Art Project]] mural created in 1936 by Eric Mose. The three-panel, 600-square-foot<ref>{{cite book |last=Cahill |first=Holger |author-link=Holger Cahill |editor-last=Barr |editor-first=Alfred H. Jr. |date=1936|title=New Horizons in American Art  |location=New York |publisher=[[Museum of Modern Art]] |oclc=501632161  }}</ref>{{Rp|141}} [[fresco-secco|fresco]], ''Power'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://schools.nyc.gov/community/facilities/PublicArt/Art/artitem.htm?e=7&an=21331 |title=''Power'', Eric Mose |last1= |first1= |last2= |first2= |date= |website=Public Art for Public Schools |publisher=[[New York City Department of Education]] |access-date=2015-06-10 }}</ref> was created in the school library. The work was described in an April 1938 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'':<ref name="NYT American Murals"/>

<blockquote>The central theme of this mural is Light. The artist of two decades ago probably would have pictured light as a Greek lady with a torch, or possibly as Prometheus. Mose, however, has combined cubism with physics. The central "figure" is a stylized abstraction of the sun, seen in design with a prism, which relates to a broad band of color that runs along the top of the mural and is broken up into brilliant stripes—the spectrum.

Beneath this field the artist has made an abstract design of the forms through which we know light and power. One recognizes spark-plugs, dynamos and such actual electrical machines as a fan. Those forms are all carried out in color-design derived from the spectrum above, and interestingly applied to individual objects such as infra-red, violet ray and other "light" instruments.

Thus the mural, a great field of glowing, angled color that looks, superficially, like something by a cubist, and has the quality of [[Chartres Cathedral#Windows|Chartres stained glass]], is at the same time an accurate scientific chart. Moveover, it is used as one by the school, and so effectively that almost any boy one may find in the library can explain its design.<ref name="NYT American Murals">{{cite news |last=Brenner |first=Anita |date=April 10, 1938 |title=America Creates American Murals |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A02EED6153CEF3ABC4852DFB2668383629EDE |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=2015-06-10 }}</ref></blockquote>

==Notable alumni==
* [[Chris Lighty]], (1968–2012) was an American music industry executive. He co-founded Violator, a record label,
* [[Frank Malzone]], (1930–2015) was an All-Star Major League Baseball player.
* [[Grandmaster Flash]],  (1958-), is a legendary American DJ.

==References==
<references />

==External links==
{{Commons category|Samuel Gompers High School}}
*[http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/07/X655/default.htm NYC Department of Education: Samuel Gompers Career and Technical Education High School]
* [http://schools.nyc.gov/community/facilities/PublicArt/Art/artitem.htm?e=7&an=21331 ''Power''] (1936) at Public Art for Public Schools, New York Department of Education
{{Education in the Bronx}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gompers, Samuel High School}}
[[Category:Defunct schools in New York City]]
[[Category:Public high schools in the Bronx]]
[[Category:Morrisania, Bronx]]
[[Category:Art Deco architecture in the Bronx]]
[[Category:School buildings completed in 1930]]


{{Bronx-school-stub}}
[[Category:2012 disestablishments in New York City]]
[[Category:Educational institutions established in 1930]]
[[Category:1930 establishments in New York City]]
[[Category:Educational institutions disestablished in 2012]]