Be The Change You Want To See...
Welcome to the Leona Tate Foundation for Change
LEARN MORE
NEWS
As a 6-year-old, Leona Tate helped desegregate schools. Now she wants others to learn that history
Katy Reckdahl January 1, 2019
Civil Rights Pioneer & Community Advocate - Leona Tate
Leona Tate, 65, who helped to desegregate the Deep South when she was six years old. Gus Bennett/New Orleans People Project
NEW ORLEANS — Clutching a small purse, six-year-old Leona Tate walked into McDonogh 19 Elementary School here and helped to desegregate the South.
Images of that November morning in 1960 are seared into the national memory: Tate and three other little first-grade girls in white dresses and hair ribbons walking into New Orleans schools, flanked by federal marshals and heckled by hateful crowds. READ MORE.......
On November 14, 1960, four courageous African American 6yr. old girls intergrated New Orleans Public Schools. The McDonogh Three - Leona Tate, Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost were the first to be escorted by U.S. Marshals when they arrived at an all-white segregated school called McDonogh No. 19. On the same fateful morning, another six-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges integrated a second New Orleans public school called William Frantz Elementary.
The Courage of Four
November 14, 2010 - 50th Anniversary of New Orleans Public School Desegregation
Plessy & Ferguson Foundation, the Louisiana Museum & the City of New Orleans History Marker Ceremony
Volunteer with Us
Our foundation receives offers from many people who are interested in getting involved in the community we serve and we are truly grateful. See what areas are a match for you...