Morris Isaacson High School is a government secondary school inSoweto. Founded in 1956, the school took an important role at the start of theSoweto Uprising in 1976.
Morris Isaacson High School sign sponsored by Coca-Cola
The school was named for Morris Isaacson who was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant in 1896. He had become wealthy by trading and he set up a fund for black students to complete their education to university level.[1] It was Isaacson who funded this school.[2] Isaacson gave enough money to build a school with ten classrooms and it opened in 1956 with 300 pupils when it was called "Mohloding School".[3]
During the height ofapartheid, teachers at Morris Isaacson High School managed to provide good quality education, despite the oppressive limits of the underfundedBantu Education system.[4]
On 8 June 1976, the South African Police attempted to arrestEnos Ngutshane atNaledi High School. He was the local leader of theSouth African Students Movement.[5] He had sent a letter to the government about the imposition ofAfrikaans as the language to be used in schools. The police failed to apprehend him, and the police were stoned and aVolkswagen Beetle was set on fire by the students.[6]
On 16 June, students had gathered at Naledi High School to walk to Morris Isaacson High School inJabavu.[5]Tsietsi Mashinini, a student at this school was a leader of the march of protest.[7] The plan was to gather atOrlando Stadium, but before that the police arrived and school children were shot.[5]
Because of the prominent role that students played in theSoweto Uprising, Morris Isaacson High School was forced to remain shut from June 1976 until 1979.[4] When it reopened, the school managed to survive the turbulent decade of the1980s. In 1991, a fire destroyed large portions of the school, including the administration block and damaged the library, some classes and the laboratory.[4]
In 1992, the filmSarafina! was filmed at Morris Isaacson High School. The school was chosen partly because of its association with student activism.[4]
On 1 May 1993,Nelson Mandela visited the school to celebrate the school's role in theSoweto Uprising and nation's transformation.
By 1995 the school had 36 classrooms, 1100 students, and 34 teachers.[3]
There is a statue of Teboho Mashinini byJohannes Phokela on the grounds that was unveiled on 1 May 2010 by theMayor of Johannesburg.[10] Morris Isaacson High School has become a center ofYouth Day commemorations of the 1976 Soweto Uprising.[4]
^Shimoni, Gideon (2003).Community and conscience : the Jews in apartheid South Africa. Hanover, NH: Brandeis Univ. Press [u.a.] p. 259.ISBN1584653299.
^abTrewhela, Paul (2009).Inside Quatro : uncovering the exile history of the ANC and SWAPO. Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media. p. 229.ISBN978-1770097766.
^Mecoamere, Victor (27 May 2013)."Naledi High turns 50".Sowetan Live. Retrieved23 July 2013.
^Bridge, Sherilee; et al. (2007).Trailblazers : South Africa's champions of change. Lansdowne, South Africa: Double Storey Books. p. 84.ISBN978-1770131101.
