NEW ORLEANS — Six decades ago, four little girls in New Orleans became the first African American students to integrate formerly all-white public elementary schools in the deep south. Three of them desegregated McDonogh 19 Elementary in the Lower Ninth Ward. Their famous steps up to the school doors were celebrated on the anniversary.
Sunday afternoon, a cheerful crowd welcomed the three civil rights pioneers back to the school they integrated 61 years ago. That day, November 14, 1960, they also arrived at a crowd surrounding McDonogh 19 Elementary, but that crowd was much different; angry, threatening, protesting as the first-grade girls were the first black students to enroll in the all-white school.
"Thank God we were so young we really didn't understand what was going on. I thought I was missing a parade. It looked like Mardi Gras. That's what I thought," said Leona Tate, one of those civil rights pioneers.
At six years old, Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Provost became the first African Americans to desegregate McDonogh 19 on St. Claude Avenue.
On this anniversary, the women climbed those same school steps they courageously walked up 61 years ago. With them were three little girls, about the size and age they were on that historic day.
"That was a reminder and that was my great-granddaughter with me today," Tate said.
U.S. Marshals escorted them just as they did 61 years ago to protect them from the angry crowds. Tate is grateful her actions then helped open doors for her great-granddaughter now.
"She's able to go to school wherever she want to go and be whoever she want to be," Tate said.
The historic school building is now home to the TEP Center, a civil rights center focused on preserving the history of desegregation in New Orleans public schools while pushing for social justice.
"We're still here to see it 61 years later. I never thought I'd be here and to have a development under my hand at this age, but it's beautiful," Tate said.
The same day the women now known as the McDonogh 3 integrated, Ruby Bridges desegregated William Frantz School across town.
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