N.O. Civil Rights Exhibit on display at TEP Center
9th October 2023 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
A traveling exhibit documenting the lives, work and impacts of New Orleans Civil Rights activists is on display at the Tate, Etienne, and Prevost (TEP) Center until November 10.
“The Trail They Blazed” brings together and chronicles the stories of numerous local people who fought and sacrificed for the Civil Rights Movement in a multi-sensory exhibit that touches on such key New Orleans civil rights events, efforts and developments as the desegregation of schools, the Congress of Racial Equality, boycotts, voter registration drives, the 1963 March on City Hall and the activism and education work in the Desire neighborhood.
The display was created collaboratively with living people who took part in the Civil Rights Movement as a way to educate the public about that vital history and to preserve the legacy of those activists who were on the front lines of the local battle for equality and justice.
The exhibit includes 1,000 square feet of historic visuals and more than three dozen audio recordings relaying the activists’ stories in their own words. TEP Center founder and executive director Leona Tate, who herself played a key role in the local Civil Rights Movement as one of three girls who integrated McDonogh 19 Elementary in 1960, said “The Trail They Blazed” is an ideal fit for the TEP Center.
“The Tate, Etienne, and Prevost Center is the ideal space to host ‘The Trail They Blazed,’” Tate said. “I am honored to be part of a community of activists who get to tell our stories in a way that provides historical accuracy and gives hope to future generations.”
“The Trail They Blazed” effort is part of the NOLA Resistance Oral History Project collaborative initiative being undertaken to document, record and preserve the stories of the many, diverse activists who participated in the New Orleans Civil Rights Movement from 1954 and 1976.
The NOLA Resistance project is spearheaded by The Historic New Orleans Collection.
THNOC curator Eric Seiferth said that the NOLA Resistance effort, which is partially funded by a grant from the National Park Service, began in 2017, and two years later “The Trail They Blazed” grew out of a desire to create a traveling exhibition that could tour local sites as part of the overall initiative. The tour begins with the appearance at the TEP Center.
“At THNOC we feel that the stories of the local Civil Rights Movement are critical to understanding our shared local history,” Seiferth said, “and we hope this public history project can extend our reach and audience by moving the content from one local host site to another.”
Seiferth said THNOC has a long-standing relationship with Tate, who donated personal papers to the Collection in the 1990s and was one of the first people interviewed for the NOLA Resistance Project. He said Tate connected the Collection with other local figures about telling their stories as well, including Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost, the other two girls who integrated McDonogh 19 with Tate.
Seiferth said that Tate and her colleagues with the TEP Center were intricately involved with the collaborative planning efforts toward the completion of “The Trail They Blazed,” including attending design meetings and hosting two of the NOLA Resistance meetings at the TEP Center itself.
As a result of such close, collaborative efforts, Seiferth said that having the TEP Center as the host for “The Trail They Blazed” is a natural choice.
“For me, the TEP Center is the perfect host site for the project as it is one of the physical spaces included in the exhibition content,” he said. “Visitors can see the exhibition and learn about public school integration, and listen to the words of Dr. Tate and others integrated into the exhibition, while standing in the place where the history happened. It doesn’t get much more powerful than that.”
He added that he’s been “thrilled with how the exhibition turned out, but more importantly I’ve been heartened by the response of our collaborators who in so many instances lived the history depicted. Being able to stand next to the people featured in the content and hear their positive reaction has been wonderful and really rewarding.”
The TEP Center is located in the Lower Ninth Ward at 5909 St. Claude Ave. Admission to “The Trail They Blazed” is included in the $10 general admission price for the Center. The TEP Center, which is located in the former McDonogh 19 building, is open to the public on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This article originally published in the October 9, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
