ARD SU / NEXTGENRADIO
What is the meaning of
home?
Samantha Jackson talks with civil rights activist Leona Tate. Tate transformed the McDonogh 19 Elementary School in New Orleans that she helped integrate as a child into the Tate, Etienne, and Prevost (TEP) Center. Her vision is to create a safe space to talk about the history of the civil rights movement and preserve her community’s future.
Leona Tate is housing history and paving the way for the future
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Click here for audio transcript
I’ve been asked several times, if something like Hurricane Katrina happened in Cairn, would you come home? Yes, I’m coming home. There’s nowhere like New Orleans. Home is where the heart is. And it’s New Orleans for me. I’m Leona Tate. I’m the Executive Director of the Leona Tate Foundation for Change. And also the Tate Etienne Seminar.
November 14, 1960, I was one of the little girls that desegregated. All white public schools here in New Orleans. It was a day I won’t forget for the rest of my life. It was exciting to me at first because I didn’t understand what was happening. We were driven here by U. S. Marshals. I can remember driving up to the front of the school building and seeing a massive crowd of people and not understanding what they’re doing or why they were out there.
I didn’t realize and didn’t pick up on the hostility. Once we got placed in the classroom, the parents of the white students just started coming in and just pulling them out. By the end of the day, they were all gone, and we were the only three in this entire building, and that lasted for a year and a half.
I didn’t even question too much about us being the only three students here. I think the only thing that really, really disturbed us is we couldn’t go outside. We couldn’t play in the yard. We couldn’t even see outside. The windows were all papered up. I can say, and I can remember, um, now that I look back at what we walked through that morning and when we were coming to school here, the, the hate and, and people just didn’t want to, to be associate with us at all.
But it was a long time that I realized that it was because of the color of my skin. I really felt like I realized how important home was, was during Katrina. People didn’t have anything to come home to. I had no intentions on buying it, but everybody that I talked to either said no one, nothing was coming back to the Lower Ninth Ward, or schools now are required to be on three acres of land, and this is only 1.8.
I knew that this building had to be transformed into something educational. Nobody was remembering the history here, and that bothered me. The TEP Center is a place that we need to have that
dialogue on undoing racism. We have a workshop here with the People’s Institute that teaches on doing racism workshops.
We have to exhibit that people can come in and tour, walk in the same shoes we walked in to come through the building in 1960. I kept thinking museum, the whole building, but my story can only go so far, and I didn’t think anything I could do was gonna fill this whole building up with, with the history that we had had.
I said, there’s a lot of people that want to come home, and they just don’t have a place to go. So I said, I’ll do it with adults, 55 or older. And that’s what we have. We have 25 affordable apartments and 16 one bedrooms and nine efficiencies. And I think we only have two that’s vacant right now. The only way I can see that we’re preserving the history is by telling the story.
It was a building where I wasn’t wanted. And I own the building, and, and, it was just something I felt like I had to do in order for the history to be told, because you hear a lot about civil rights, but you didn’t hear anything about the McDonough Three here at McDonough 19. I knew if I allowed them to tear it down, that’s what was going to happen.
Our history would be lost. And me as a black woman, that was really something. I was just doing what my heart said to do. I just went with my gut. A lot of people pull up and they’ll say, we had no idea what we was coming into. You know, even when the students come, they don’t know what they’re coming to.
They’re really enthusiastic about learning it. And, and that excites me. You know, and that keeps me pushed to keep continuing to tell that story. Because I feel like this is where we were introduced to racism. And this is where I wanted to end.
Leona Tate radiates pride as she stands before a vibrant mural capturing her legacy alongside Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost at the TEP Center on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.
SAMANTHA JACKSON / NEXTGENRADIO
On November 14, 1960, Leona Tate walked up the steps of McDonogh 19 Elementary, an all-white public school in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, for her first day of first grade. At only 6 years old, Tate did not yet understand the impact her presence would have on that day.
“It was a day I won’t forget for the rest of my life,” she said. “It was exciting to me at first, because I didn’t understand what was happening.”
Tate was one of the “McDonogh Three,” a group of three Black girls that were the first to integrate a public school in the Deep South following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
From historic steps to living legacies, the former McDonogh 19 school, now TEP Center, is where Leona Tate’s journey becomes our shared history.
SAMANTHA JACKSON / NEXTGENRADIO
Escorted by U.S. Marshals, Tate, along with Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost, arrived at the school flocked by a massive crowd of people protesting their enrollment. To a child born and raised in New Orleans, the commotion outside could easily be mistaken for something else.
“The only thing that I could relate to at 6 years old was a parade was coming,” said Tate. “Because I knew a parade passed on this street. And … I kind of questioned my mother on why I had to go to school and everybody else got to watch the parade, and figured out late that wasn’t the case.”
She was too young to understand the hostility and anger in those people’s hearts.
“The parents of the white students just started coming in and pulling them out,” she said. “By the end of the day, they were all gone, and we were the only three in the entire building. That lasted for a year and a half.”
Throughout all the uproar in the community, Tate was never afraid. She stood bravely and continued to go to school. Her first-grade teacher was “more protective than anything,” and Tate never feared riding in the car with the U.S. Marshals who took her to school and brought her home every day.
“I didn’t question too much about us being the only three students here … the only thing that really, really disturbed us is we couldn’t play in the yard, we couldn’t even see outside, the windows were all papered up,” said Tate.
Tate was the only girl from the “McDonogh Three” to integrate all-white schools from elementary through high school. Etienne and Prevost eventually returned to segregated schools.
After graduating, Tate did not think much about McDonogh until after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, leaving her community destroyed.
In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina shook New Orleans – one of the largest and strongest recorded hurricanes to hit the United States. Families all over the city had to flee to neighboring states, leaving their entire lives behind without knowing when they could come back or what would still be there.
Tate’s neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, was completely destroyed. People in her community wanted to come home but there was no place to go.
From textbooks to cozy nooks: transforming classrooms into stylish living spaces at the TEP Center.
COURTESY OF TEP CENTER / MANNING ARCHITECTS
Taking matters into her own hands, Tate bought the building in 2020 and transformed it into the TEP Center in 2022 — named in honor of the “McDonogh Three.” She currently has 25 different apartment units that house older adults and has created a haven for them.
“I had no intention of buying (the school property), but everybody that I talked to said … nothing was coming back to the Lower Ninth Ward,” Tate said.
But housing isn’t the only use for the TEP Center. Tate’s main focus for McDonough 19 is to preserve the history she helped make there, not wanting her story to get lost in time.
I had no intention of buying (the school property), but everybody that I talked to said … nothing was coming back to the Lower Ninth Ward.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE THE GALLERY
Photo 1: A mural depicting the McDonogh Three then and now is shown on the back wall of the TEP Center, crafted by renowned New Orleans artist Brandan ‘BMIKE’ Odums. The center offers many community programs and is growing its educational offerings. SAMANTHA JACKSON / NEXTGENRADIO
Photo 2: Leona Tate holds the iconic photo of her 6-year-old self on her first day at McDonogh 19 Elementary School in 1960. SAMANTHA JACKSON / NEXTGENRADIO
Photo 3: A replica of what Leona Tate’s desk looked like is placed in the classroom where she once sat and learned at the former elementary school. SAMANTHA JACKSON / NEXTGENRADIO
Photo 4: Archival newspapers and images documenting the McDonogh Three and November 14, 1960. SAMANTHA JACKSON / NEXTGENRADIO
She transformed a former classroom on the first floor of the building to serve as an exhibit, allowing guests to walk through the halls she did as a child, see the stairs of the school she once played under, and even the seat she once sat in.
She hosts tours of the exhibit for teachers and educators, teaching them her story to take back to their classrooms. Tate’s goal is to work with NOLA Public Schools and the Orleans Parish School Board to offer courses about the “McDonogh Three” so that her story is not lost.
“I feel like this is where we were introduced to racism, and this is where I want it to end,” she said.
Tate holds a Small Shoes, Great Strides book detailing the McDonogh Three and her role in school equality. The book teaches students her history and the importance of equal access to education.
SAMANTHA JACKSON / NEXTGENRADIO
I feel like this is where we were introduced to racism, and this is where I want it to end.