Norm Fruchter, a civil rights activist, documentarian and novelist who devoted his career to seeing that all students receive a sound basic education regardless of their race, ethnicity, class or income, died on Jan. 4 in Brooklyn. He was 85.

Mr. Fruchter, as lifelong educator, helped secure approval to start Independence High School in Newark in 1970.. The school, intended for struggling students, became a prototype for alternative secondary schools across the country.