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The School Integration of the McDonogh Three

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By Marlena Ryan

“America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” – Frederick Douglas (1852)

“History has its eyes on you.” It is a line from the musical Hamilton and one that I think about often as our country is dealing with a pandemic, an incompetent President, and civic unrest all at the same time. History is being written as we are living it, and it will judge the Trump administration harshly for its actions.

Sadly, the historical events that are written in our history books are often too brief or “whitewashed”, toning down the slavery, social movements and violence that are a part of our country’s history. It is a true travesty. The more I read and learn about the civil rights movement during the 1960s, the more I am amazed by what life was like then and how strong these activists were, many of whom were quite young at the time they were writing America’s history. While I believe these individuals should be remembered and celebrated, and the history that led to us even having a civil rights movement in the first place should never be forgotten, there is one who desperately wants Americans to forget our country’s past: Donald Trump.

On September 17, 2020, Trump proposed the start of the “1776 Commission” to “reinstate patriotism” in American schools. But what could be more patriotic than fighting for all American citizens to have equal rights? Our country was founded on the idea of freedom for some with the real oppression of many. If this were not true, there never would have been a need for women’s suffrage, and there would not have been a need for the McDonogh Three: the first group of six-year old black girls to integrate the all-white McDonogh No. 19 Elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana. These historical events alone lose their significance when we lack the historical knowledge of how women and minorities have been treated in this country. In order to continue improving our country and the lives of its citizens, we must learn and understand our country’s history.

In 1896, the Supreme court ruled that there needed to be public schools for both white and black students in a case known as Plessy v. Ferguson. The idea was for these schools to be “separate but equal”. But in states like New Orleans, equality within the schools was lacking. The public schools for black students were often overcrowded and had outdated books and facilities. For years, the black community demanded for the schools to be made equal. The case known as Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas called the segregation of schools into question.

On May 17, 1954, Brown vs. the Board of Education ruled against state sanctioned segregation and called for a nationwide desegregation to take place in all public schools. New Orleans, however, was one of several southern states that was resistant to integrating schools. A federal judge had to order the Orleans Parish School Board to officially desegregate its schools. But before any black students could integrate, the school district decided to start with only desegregating the first grade, and they had the black students take a challenging admissions test before they would be allowed to integrate the public schools. There were six black students who passed the test. All of them were girls, six years of age. But with two students staying at their segregated schools, only four students started the historic journey of integrating two elementary schools in Louisiana. Three of them: Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost attended McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School. They would later be called the McDonogh Three. The fourth student would attend the William Frantz Elementary School. Her name was Ruby Bridges.

On November 14, 1960, the McDonogh Three attended the McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School for the first time. The girls were escorted to school by their mothers and U.S. Marshals. There were crowds of white people outside of the school, being held back by police officers. At six years old, the girls were too young to comprehend what was happening. One of them thought there was a parade coming. But the crowd of people was anything but kind. Many of them were white parents who did not want black children attending school with their white children. All the white students were pulled by their parents from the first-grade class leaving just the three black girls for the entire school year. Brown paper bags were taped to the classroom windows to protect the three girls. They were not allowed to play outside nor eat in the school cafeteria. These brave young girls and their parents started the road to desegregating schools. But it would take another ten years before the rest of the public schools in Louisiana would fully integrate.

In 2005, the McDonogh No.19 Elementary School was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. But Leona Tate, Gail Etienne-Stripling, and Tessie Prevost-Williams made plans to turn the old school building into a learning center called the Tate, Etienne & Prevost Center (or TEP Center). They want visitors to not only learn about the history of the school, but to also experience it. “I visited a lot of schools and the students here just don’t know what’s going on here, what has happened here”, Leona Tate said during an interview with New York’s PIX 11 news. One of the plans for the TEP Center is to have visitors walk up the steps hearing the screams and the abusive language that the McDonogh Three heard during their walk up the school steps at six years old. The racial epithets and shouts are still vivid in the memory of Leona Tate more than 50 years later. In 2018, the Leona Tate foundation received a $500,000 National Park Service grant to begin the work on the TEP Center. The women hope to open the center Spring of 2021.

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