McDonogh Three

The McDonogh Three is a nickname for three African American students who desegregated McDonogh 19 Elementary School, in New Orleans on November 14, 1960.^[1] Even though school segregation had been illegal since the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, no states in the American Deep South had taken action to integrate their schools.^[2]

The McDonogh Three were Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost, girls who had all previously attended black-only schools in the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood segregated by block.^[1] Then, on November 14, 1960, the students arrived at McDonogh No. 19, a previously segregated all-white school, escorted by United States Marshals wearing yellow armbands to enact school integration. The desegregation was met with violent protests and many precautions had to be taken to protect the students. That same morning, a 6-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges integrated a second New Orleans public school, William Frantz Elementary. Bridges and the McDonogh Three are collectively known as the New Orleans Four.^[2]