NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) —On the first day of 2022’s Black History Month, a very storied building in the 9th Ward community in New Orleans is honored with a historical Marker.
The Louisiana Civil Rights Trail is taking residents and tourists alike on a tour through the state to see some of the most impactful sites that helped to make the country a better place socially.
On November 14th, 1960, an angry crowd stood outside of the school as three first graders named: Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne integrated McDonogh 19 School.
62 year later, there is another crowd outside of the school. It’s a crowd composed of family, friends and politicians; who celebrate McDonogh 19 as 5th marker unveiled on the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail.
It’s a beautiful moment for Leona Tate, whose mission is to tell the story about equality and how freedom doesn’t come easily. Leona Tate now owns the very school she helped to integrate and says, “when I got to the person that told me that my vision could be done, I knew it was my time! My vision turned into a reality, and I am so glad.”
McDonogh 19 is officially The TEP Center. The TEP Center is named after the three women who integrated the school at age six; it was born out of the former Lower 9th Ward Living Museum and the Leona Tate Foudnation.
Louisiana Lieutenant Governor, Billy Nungesser began the Louisiana Civil Rights Marker Trail after attending a meeting with other politicians in Arizona. Nungesser questioned why Louisiana didn’t have a civil rights trail and a committee was formed to create one.
“I never learned these stories in school. I didn’t know about the three little girls who were lead into McDonogh 19 by police. Those stories were never told to many of us. To be able to put them into an educational plan to be downloaded in schools or at home will be an education to be used for many generations,” says Nungesser.
The colorful marker bares the story of integration. It’s a story that the TEP Center will continue to use to actively engage in dialogue with the community about the contributions of the many people who made equality possible and those who defend equality today.
“You just don’t how many people we’ve gone to that don’t know the history of what happened in this building. It takes a lot to tell them this story. We are here now! We will have some racial healing in this building that will start a new horizon,” says Leona Tate.