NEW IBERIA, La. --- The Shadows-on-the-Teche was recently awarded a Rebirth Grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities to offer a fall lecture series centered on education in Louisiana. 

For the finale of this three-part series, Dr. Leona Tate one of “The McDonogh Three” will join Molly Baker, manager of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s HOPE Crew, in conversation on how education and preservation can help in the work of healing communities. The lecture will take place on Thurs., Nov. 7, at 5:30 p.m. at the Shadows Visitor Center (320 E. Main St., New Iberia).

In 1960, Leona Tate was one of “The McDonogh Three” who integrated New Orleans public schools. More than 60 years later, Tate, along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, returned to McDonogh 19 to open an anti-racism community center to heal their community. The Tate, Etienne, and Prevost (TEP) Center, which opened in 2022, is a mixed-use development dedicated to the history of New Orleans Public School Desegregation, Civil Rights, and Black Life. Dr. Tate's 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.

Light reception begins at 5:30 p.m. with the lecture to follow at 6 p.m. The program is free to attend, but registration is recommended. Attendees can register online. 

About the Speakers:

Dr. Leona Tate

On Nov. 14, 1960, six years after separate black and white schools were ruled unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Leona Tate became one of four 6-year-old girls in New Orleans to integrate white-only public schools in the Deep South. On that day, she, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost enrolled in McDonogh No. 19 School in the Historic Ninth Ward. A fourth girl began classes minutes later at William Frantz School. 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 escorted The New Orleans Four to the schools at 9 a.m. By 9:25 a.m., the two former all-white public elementary schools in the Deep South were desegregated.

In 2009, Leona Tate established the Leona Tate Foundation for Change, Inc. (LTFC) to purchase McDonogh 19. As the volunteer Executive Director from 2009-2021, Dr. Tate led the organization to provide free summer camps, after-school tutoring, adult literacy, Christmas toy drives, and a monthly food pantry. Under her leadership, LTFC also staffed the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum, a free community museum dedicated to the history of the historic Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood.

In 2020, LFTC and development partners, Alembic Community Developers, bought and renovated the historic McDonogh 19 campus, which reopened as the Tate, Etienne, and Prevost (TEP) Center in 2022. 

In 2023, Tate was honored with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Thomas Christian University and Macalester College in recognition of her service to the New Orleans community and beyond.

Molly Baker

Molly Baker serves as HOPE Crew Manager in the Preservation Services and Outreach department at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Her focus is growing interest in the building preservation trades by engaging a younger, more diverse audience in hands-on preservation opportunities. Additionally, she has partnered with HOPE Crew Director Milan Jordan to expand the program, finding the place where architecture education, and preservation experience intersect by working with architecture students on campus stewardship, community engagement, and documentation techniques. Molly was drawn to building preservation by her belief in the value of learning about history through the structures that hold stories of our past. She holds an A.S. in historic building preservation from Belmont College, a B.A. in history from Northwestern State University, and was honored to serve as the 2023-24 NPS Harrison Goodall Preservation Fellow.

About Shadows-on-the-Teche:

The Shadows-on-the-Teche, National Trust for Historic Preservation site, opened to the public in 1961 with the mission to preserve the buildings, landscape, collections, and historical integrity of the site; to research and interpret through education programs a 19th century southern Louisiana plantation economy and community and their evolution; and to encourage an appreciation of and interest in historic preservation.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns and operates the Shadows-on-the-Teche, is a private, non-profit organization. The Shadows does not receive funding from federal, state, parish, or city government. The site supports itself through admissions, special programs and events, and donations to the Friends of the Shadows.

This program is funded under a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For additional information, contact Jayd Buteaux, Senior Manager of Operations & Marketing, at (337)-369-6446 or by email.