By Joe Refinski, East Orange STEM Academy History teacher
On Nov. 20, 1789, New Jersey was the first state in the nation to ratify the Bill of Rights. The rest of the nation ratified it in 1791 – 230 years ago. The official anniversary of the Bill of Rights is Dec. 15, and the students and staff at East Orange STEM Academy will be celebrating with a copy of New Jersey’s copy of the Bill of Rights, borrowed from the NJ State Archives.
As part of our exhibit on the anniversary, we will be displaying several panels of an old Xerox exhibit that was created for the Constitution’s Bicentennial, along with photos of the actual Declaration of Independence, the first and last pages of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and a plaque to the five East Orange soldiers who perished in Vietnam.
