On November 14, 1960, six years after separate black and white schools were ruled unconstitutional in the Brown vs Board of Education ruling, four 6-year-old girls in New Orleans became the first African Americans to integrate white-only public elementary schools in the Deep South. On that day three girls Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost enrolled in McDonogh No. 19 School at 5909 St. Claude Avenue.

A fourth girl Ruby Bridges began classes at William Frantz School at 3811 North Galvez Street. 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 began escorting The New Orleans Four to the schools at 9 am. By 9:25 am the two public elementary schools in the Deep South were integrated.

In 2009, Leona Tate, established the Leona Tate Foundation for Change to help purchase McDonogh 19, the school she with Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne integrated. Today, she and her partners Alembic Community Developers are readying the historic landmark building to reopen in Spring 2021 as the Tate, Etienne, and Prevost (TEP) Center. A mixed-use development dedicated to the history of New Orleans Public School Desegregation, Civil Rights, and Black Life.

Her 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.

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