A New Orleans community center rises from its ugly history as a segregated school

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-3-2022

Journal Title

The Conversation

Abstract

They were known as “the McDonogh Three,” and unlike many stories of the tumultuous civil rights era, this one has a hopeful ending.

On May 4, 2022, Leona Tate, Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost are scheduled to cut the ribbons around the front door of the former McDonogh 19 Elementary School.

Located in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, the school was the scene of some of the nation’s fiercest anti-integration school battles in the early 1960s.

Now named after the three women, the school has been transformed into the TEP Center, whose name consists of the first letters of each woman’s last name. It has been redesigned to include affordable housing and exhibition space focused on the civil rights era and the three women’s stories.

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This article was originally published in The Conversation.

The Conversation

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Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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