Leona Tate

Tate was born and raised in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. She and her family were selected among many applicants to be the initial implementers of school desegregation.

On the morning of November 14, 1960 four 6-year-old girls: Tate, Ruby Bridges, Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne escorted by U.S. Marshals became the first African Americans to desegregate formerly all white Elementary Public Schools in New Orleans and the Deep South. Three of the girls Leona, Tessie & Gail (The McDonogh Three) enrolled at McDonogh 19 Elementary School at 5909 St. Claude Avenue and the other girl Ruby Bridges enrolled at William Frantz Elementary School at 3811 North Galvez Street.

As soon as she and her peers entered the schools, the white children were pulled out; for 18 months the girls were the only students in their class.[2] In 1962, the school became an all black-school and as a result, Tate, Etienne and Prevost marched on to integrate another formerly all white elementary school, T.J. Semmes.[3]

The Integration of New Orleans public elementary schools marked a major focal point in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement. With worldwide attention focused on New Orleans, federal marshals wearing yellow armbands began escorting The New Orleans Four into the schools at 9am. By 9:25am, the two public elementary schools in the Deep South were integrated.  

In 2009, Leona Tate, established the Leona Tate Foundation for Change to help purchase McDonogh 19, the school she with Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne integrated. Today, she and her partners at Alembic Community Development are readying the historic landmark building to reopen in Spring 2021 as the Tate, Etienne, and Prevost (TEP) Center, a mixed-use development dedicated to the history of New Orleans Public School Desegregation, Civil Rights, and Black Life. Her mission for the TEP Center is to create a safe space and community anchor where the public can learn, support, and train for anti-racism activism and social restorative justice.