History, in Her Own Words: An Evening with Dr. Leona Tate

On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Leona Tate walked into McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School in the Lower Ninth Ward, escorted by federal marshals. On Thursday, September 17, nearly 66 years later, she walked onto the stage of Weinmann Auditorium. She told a room full of Country Day students, families, and friends what that morning was like, and what came after.

"It was the most beautiful community gathering I've been a part of in Weinmann Auditorium," one guest said afterward. Many in the room felt the same way.

Students Set the Stage

Country Day students led the evening from start to finish. Before the program, Nadal de-Silva Ahmed '31, Alexandra Reinhard '32, and Declan Egan '33 served as docents in the Georges Art Gallery. They then introduced Dr. Tate and the students asking questions. Seniors Isabel Berry '27 and Trinity Wilson '27 moderated the conversation. Their questions came from students of all ages and were gathered before the event.

The questions were as honest as only young people's questions can be. One student asked whether she had ever been bullied. Another asked how integrating a school as a child shaped her as an adult. Dr. Tate answered each one with patience and grace, speaking directly to the children and adults in the audience. When the program ended, students lined up to take pictures with her.

"And the kids! From our moderators to our docents who introduced the question-askers, they were all so thoughtful and engaged. Such a testament to the work the teachers do each day."
—Country Day parent

A Month Inside the History

The evening was the centerpiece of a full month of learning around The Trail They Blazed, the traveling exhibition from The Historic New Orleans Collection installed in the Georges Art Gallery. All 18 Lower School classes and all the Middle and Upper School classes walked through the exhibit while it was on campus.

Lower School students from Pre-K to fifth grade focused on the idea of primary sources and the importance of hearing stories from the people who lived them firsthand. A simple comparison made it click: telling the nurse about your own injury is very different from having someone else tell the nurse for you. Even the very youngest understood this idea, as well as the concepts of equity and fairness that were inherent in the exhibit. These young students left with a newfound interest in searching the city for such connections as Norman C. Francis Parkway and the Morial Convention Center.

For our students, the story they studied in the exhibit happened just miles from campus, and on September 17 it had a voice. One fifth grader put it best in a written reflection:

"Dr. Tate was an inspiration to hear because it shows you can go from people segregating you and discriminating against you to someone who people hold as idols and someone who can change the world."

Students Teaching Students

The Middle School classes walked the exhibit with guides their own age. Students trained as docents led their peers through the exhibition, and the tours kept returning to one idea: primary sources. The exhibition was built with the people who lived the history it tells, and recorded audio lets visitors hear Leona Tate, Sybil and Dutch Morial, Oretha Castle Haley, and Norman C. Francis in their own words.

Our thanks to the Middle School students who took on that role: Nadal de Silva-Ahmed '31, Declan Egan '33, Merritt Morrison '31, Alexandra Reinhard '32, and Ashton Wood '31.

The Story After the First Year

In the exhibition's final week, Upper School classes filled Georges Art Gallery, and the students who had heard Dr. Tate speak brought her words with them.

What surprised them most was what came after that first year. Dr. Tate explained that as each year passed, she was sent to another new school, integrating all over again, and that things grew more painful as the marshals withdrew. How much protection a child needed became its own theme. One student remembered her saying that in first grade she was never allowed to leave the building, or even go near the window to sharpen her pencil.

Those stories stayed with the students who heard them, and helped their classmates make sense of what was on the walls. Thank you to Isabel Berry '27, who served as a docent for her peers.

A Parallel in Guatemala

Eighth-grade Spanish honors students found their own way in. They are studying the story of Indigenous girls in El Quiché, Guatemala, who are campaigning for safe school access and bilingual Maya-Spanish education in the face of deep systemic barriers. Using Spanish texts and discussion, they compared that movement to the story in the exhibit, and to Dr. Tate and the children who desegregated New Orleans public schools.

Their visit let them apply their Spanish to a real question and recognize the same courage in young people in both places. Many thanks to Spanish teacher Annabelle Williamson for a powerful cross-curricular project.

About Dr. Leona Tate

In 1960, Dr. Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost integrated McDonogh No. 19, and Ruby Bridges entered William Frantz Elementary the same morning, a short distance away. They were the first to desegregate public elementary schools in the Deep South. White families withdrew their children right away, and for 18 months the three girls were the only students in the building. In 2009, Dr. Tate founded the Leona Tate Foundation for Change. She later led the effort to acquire McDonogh No. 19 and reopen it in 2022 as the Tate Etienne Prevost Interpretive Center (TEP Center). Today, students across Louisiana, including seniors at Country Day as part of the New Orleans Scholars Program, learn this history in the same building where it happened. She holds honorary doctorates from Tulane University, Macalester College, and St. Thomas Christian University.

The Exhibit

The Trail They Blazed closed on Friday, September 25, after a final week in the Georges Art Gallery. Country Day was the last stop on its tour.

Our thanks to Dr. Tate for sharing her story with us. Thank you as well to Alexandra, Declan, Isabel, Nadal, and Trinity, who led the evening with such care and made our whole community proud.