The McDonogh Three
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The McDonogh Three were three young African American girls who integrated McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.
Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne (all born circa 1954) were among five girls who had passed an admission test devised by the Orleans Parish School Board to find black girls worthy to attend white schools. A fourth little girl was Ruby Bridges, who alone integrated another nearby elementary school. A fifth girl eventually did not participate in the 1960 integration. African American boys were not allowed to apply.
The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, and a 1955 clarification, had required schools to be integrated with "all deliberate speed," but Orleans Parish had delayed until this point.
Tate, Prevost, and Etienne began the first grade at McDonogh No. 19, facing protests, harassment, and physical abuse by white members of the school community and community at large. They were escorted into and out of the school by federal marshals. In the third grade, the same three girls integrated T.J. Semmes Elementary School.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Thevenot, Brian. "The McDonogh Three", New Orleans Times-Picayune, 16 May 2004. Retrieved on 2006-04-29.
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