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| New Orleans school desegregation crisis | |||
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| Part of the civil rights movement | |||
 The New Orleans Four were escorted by U.S. Marshals to integrate white only public elementary schools in New Orleans, 1960 | |||
| Date | November 14, 1960 | ||
| Location | McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School and William Frantz Elementary School located in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana | ||
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The New Orleans school desegregation crisis was a period of intense public resistance in New Orleans that followed the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The conflict peaked when U.S. Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright ordered desegregation in New Orleans to begin on November 14, 1960.
On the morning of November 14, 1960, two New Orleans elementary schools began desegregation. Leona Tate, Tessie Provost, and Gail Etienne, enrolled at McDonogh 19 Elementary School, while Ruby Bridges enrolled at William Frantz Elementary School. They became known as The New Orleans Four.[1] All four 6-year-old girls were met with death threats, racial slurs, and taunts. Widespread boycotts began immediately, and by the end of the day, few white children remained at either school.
On November 16, a race riot broke out in front of a meeting of the Orleans Parish School Board. Following the riot, United States marshals began accompanying the four girls to their respective schools, while death threats against them continued. During the next few days, other white parents began returning their children to school.[2][3][4]
It took ten more years for the New Orleans public schools to fully integrate. In September 1962, the Catholic schools of Orleans Parish were also integrated.[5]
- ^ "New Orleans Four Legacy Project". "New Orleans School Crisis." In KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana, edited by David Johnson. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010–. Article published March 31, 2011. http://www.knowla.org/entry/723/.
- ^ Ellen Blue, St. Mark's and the Social Gospel: Methodist Women and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1895–1965, pp. 161–162 (University of Tennessee Press, 2011).
- ^ Reckdahl, Katy (November 14, 2010). "Fifty years later, students recall integrating New Orleans public schools". The Times-Picayune. New Orleans, Louisiana. Retrieved April 11, 2024 – via NOLA.com.
- ^ Sarah Holtz & Mark Cave, "The Other Empty Classroom: Bearing Witness To Desegregation," February 15, 2018, New Orleans Public Radio, at [1].
- ^ Manning, Diane T.; Rogers, Perry (2002). "Desegregation of the New Orleans Parochial Schools". The Journal of Negro Education. 71 (1/2): 31–42. ISSN 2167-6437. JSTOR 3211223.