McDonogh 19 awarded $500K preservation grant

20th April 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer

One of the stops on the city’s modern civil rights trail and the epicenter of the battle to desegregate the New Orleans public school system has received a $500,000 federal grant to enhance the landmark and add two floors of affordable housing.

Earlier this month, the National Park Service announced a total of $14 million in grants to landmarks across the country as part of the service’s African American Civil Rights Historic Preservation Fund. In all, 51 projects spanning 20 states were awarded grant funding for development and preservation.

Included in the funding package was a $500,000 grant to the Leona Tate Foundation for Change, Inc., which operates the landmark at McDonogh 19 school in the Lower Ninth Ward. Tate was one of three African-American girls – along with Tessie Provost and Gail Etienne – who, on the morning of Nov. 14, 1960 and under the protection of federal marshals, became the first people of color to attend the previously all-white educational facility.

Coming six years after the Supreme Court’s landmark desegregation ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, the actions and courage of the “McDonogh Three” signaled the belated, lengthy, rocky process of integrating the city’s public-school system, which previously had been ruled by the sham falsehood of “separate but equal.”

Tate, the founder and executive director of the Leona Tate Foundation, said last week that the $500,000 grant, the second such award given to the organization, will help turn the school’s cafeteria into an interactive interpretive center that will host youth events, educational programs, anti-racism workshops, film screenings, tours and other gatherings and events.

When Leona, Tessie and Gail attended the school on the first day, they were barred from entering the cafeteria. The new cafeteria exhibit will be named the Tate, Etienne & Provost Interpretive Center. The opening of the interpretive center will hopefully roughly coincide with the 60th anniversary of the three girls’ integration of McDonogh 19.

In addition to the enhancement project in the cafeteria, Tate said, the two floors above the main cafeteria level will be converted into affordable, lower-income housing units.

Tate said the work has already been started on the cafeteria renovation. The Tate Foundation in January officially closed on its purchase of the historic school building located on St. Claude Street.

“It will be a place where people can not just come and hear, but also see and appreciate the history,” Tate said.

Tate added that in addition to learning the facts of that history, patrons will also hopefully take with them the ideas of equality and justice that were embodied by the bravery of those who fought for integration decades ago. She said reconciliation between people will be the fundamental message of the center.

“Younger people need to know about it,” Tate said. “Many people don’t know about the history. People will be able to explore and see all the things they can do [in life]. That is the key.”

The McDonogh 19 center is one of eight stops on the New Orleans Civil Rights tour curated by the University of New Orleans Public History Department, and it can dovetail with the recently announced development of a Louisiana Civil Rights Trail. The creation of the state Civil Rights tour got off the ground last year under the guidance of the Office of Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser.

The source of the new federal funding is the National Park Service and the national Historical Fund, which received appropriations from Congress last year.

“These grants will fund important projects that document, interpret, and preserve sites that tell the stories of the African-American experience in the pursuit of civil rights,” said National Park Service Deputy Director David Vela. “Thanks to the coordination of public and private partners, these projects will help connect Americans to historic places that preserve American history.”

This article originally published in the April 20, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.