On November 14, 1960, six years after separate black and white schools were ruled unconstitutional in the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, Leona Tate became one of four 6-year-old girls in New Orleans to integrate white-only public elementary schools in the Deep South. On that day, she, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost enrolled in McDonogh No. 19 School in the Historic Ninth Ward. A fourth girl began classes minutes later at William Frantz School.

The Integration of New Orleans public elementary schools marked a major focal point in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement. With worldwide attention focused on New Orleans, federal marshals wearing yellow armbands escorted The New Orleans Four to the schools at 9 am. By 9:25 am, the two former all-white public elementary schools in the Deep South were desegregated.

In 2009, Leona Tate established the Leona Tate Foundation for Change, Inc. (LTFC) to purchase McDonogh 19, the school she, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne integrated. As the volunteer Executive Director from 2009-2021, Dr. Tate led the organization to provide free summer camps, after-school tutoring, adult literacy, Christmas toy drives, and a monthly food pantry. Under her leadership, LTFC also staffed the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum, a free community museum dedicated to the history of the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood.

In 2020, LTFC with development partners, Alembic Community Developers, bought and renovated the historic McDonogh 19 campus, which reopened as the Tate, Etienne, and Prevost (TEP) Center in 2022. It is a mixed-use development dedicated to the history of New OrleansPublic School Desegregation, Civil Rights, and Black Life. Dr. Tate's mission for the TEP Center is to create a safe space and community anchor where the public can learn, support, and train for anti-racism activism and social restorative justice.

Tate has been bestowed with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Thomas Christian University, Macalester College, and Tulane University in recognition of her service to the New Orleans community and beyond.

Although operating the TEP Center demands much of her time and attention, Leona values quality time with her family. She is a mother of 3, a grandmother of 12, and a great-grandmother of 11. Leona's love for community anchors the mission of the Leona Tate Foundation for Change, Inc. and the TEP Center.

Ron Bechet, Born In New Orleans is a visual artist whose practice and critical engagement in the arts spans over 40 years. Best known for his large-scale black and white drawings and large colorful paintings, Bechet’s improvisational approach and mark-making aesthetic are grounded in experiences and cultural practices of the African diaspora and New Orleans’ unique traditions.

His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally and held in many public and private collections, including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design Museum and the University Manitoba Museum among a few. He has received numerous awards and honors for his work and was recently celebrated as Prospect 6 Gala Honoree and featured in BOMB as part of their Oral History Project in 2024.

Working within, beneath, and alongside the underlying layers of his experiences and the consequences of systemic confrontation, Bechet challenges assumptions of what art can be while pushing the boundaries of his creative approach.

Bechet earned a B.A. Degree from the University of New Orleans, Louisiana and an M.F.A. degree from Yale School of Art, Yale University. New Haven, Connecticut. In addition to his studio practice he is the Victor H. Labat Professor of Art at Xavier University of Louisiana where he has taught for over 20 Years.

Civil Rights Icon | Member of The New Orleans Four With worldwide attention focused on New Orleans on November 14, 1960, six-year-old Gail Etienne walked into history.

On that extraordinary morning, Gail Etienne joined fellow members of The New Orleans Four, Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Ruby Bridges—in one of the defining moments of the American Civil Rights Movement. Under the protection of United States Marshals, Gail Etienne, Leona Tate, and Tessie Prevost courageously desegregated McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, while Ruby Bridges desegregated William Frantz Elementary School. Their quiet courage in the face of hatred helped dismantle the walls of legalized school segregation in New Orleans and throughout the Deep South, advancing the promise of equal educational opportunity for generations of American children.

What began as an extraordinary act of childhood courage became a lifelong commitment to preserving truth.

Today, Ms. Etienne serves as President and CEO of New Orleans Four LLC, leading the effort to protect, preserve, and restore the complete historical record and enduring legacy of The New Orleans Four. Through education, literature, film, and public history, she continues to ensure that future generations understand not only what happened on that historic day, but why it forever changed America.

More than six decades later, Gail Etienne remains a living civil rights icon, a guardian of history whose courage, resilience, and unwavering commitment to justice continue to inspire our nation and the world.