This week marks the 65th anniversary of the desegregation of New Orleans public schools, the day that four 6-year-old girls were accompanied by U.S. marshals as they walked into school. On Nov. 14, 1960, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost and Leona Tate integrated McDonogh 19 Elementary School on St. Claude Avenue. At the same time, marshals escorted 6-year-old Ruby Bridges into William Frantz Elementary School on North Galvez.
Although the historic Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education had come more than six years earlier, calling “separate but equal” school facilities unconstitutional, New Orleans — like much of the South — was slow to change. In 1960, the four young Black students were selected from a pool of 134 who applied to attend the city’s all-white public schools…