A public high school in Newark just joined a conversation usually reserved for the most celebrated entertainers in the world. When Michael B. Jordan accepted the Academy Award for Best Actor on March 15 for his dual role in Ryan Coogler’s supernatural thriller Sinners, he did more than win the first Oscar of his career. He completed a historic milestone for his alma mater: Newark’s Arts High School can now claim EGOT status, meaning its alumni have collectively won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.
Jordan, a 2005 graduate of Arts High, played identical twin brothers Smoke and Stack in Sinners, a 1930s-set horror film about two men who return to their hometown in the Jim Crow South and open a juke joint, only to find themselves fighting off vampires. The film was nominated for a record 16 Oscars and took home four on the night. Jordan’s win made him the sixth Black man to win in the Best Actor category, placing him alongside Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith.
“I stand here because of the people that came before me,” Jordan said during his acceptance speech at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Back in Newark, the reaction was immediate. Arts High School’s official social media accounts celebrated the win and noted the significance of the achievement. “Arts High has reached EGOT status,” the school announced, calling out the alumni who made it possible.
The Emmy and Grammy pieces of the EGOT had been in place for years. Jazz legend Sarah Vaughan, who attended Arts High before leaving before graduation, won Grammy Awards in 1983 and 1989 and an Emmy Award in 1990. Wayne Shorter, a class of 1952 graduate and one of the most influential figures in modern jazz history, won 12 Grammy Awards over his career, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. Singer and actress Melba Moore, class of 1958, won a Tony Award, as did dancer and choreographer Savion Glover, class of 1991. Jordan’s Oscar was the final piece needed to complete the set.
Arts High School was founded in 1931 and was the first school in the United States dedicated to visual and performing arts education. It is now the first public arts high school in the country to achieve collective EGOT status across its alumni body — a distinction that sets it apart not just in New Jersey, but nationally.
The school’s list of notable graduates extends well beyond those who contributed to the EGOT. Pose star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, a Golden Globe winner and Arts High alum, reacted to Jordan’s win with pride. “It’s inspirational to see someone from your hometown, from your own school, make it like that,” Rodriguez said. “If he can do it, then I know I can do it, and I know my time isn’t too far off either.”
Jordan’s sister, Jamila Jordan-Theus, who also graduated from Arts High in 2002, has won two Emmy Awards of her own for producing work including the miniseries Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts and the TV movie Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, further deepening the family’s connection to the school’s legacy.
The milestone arrives as Newark continues to grow its profile as a cultural hub in the region, and it adds another chapter to a school whose impact on the arts far exceeds its modest public school footprint.
