Through a Crowd, Bravely

In a letter dated November 7, 1929, to members of the Louisiana State Board of Education, State Superintendent of Education T.H. White expressed his desire for "an investigation of teacher-training needs for the colored children of Louisiana, as well as a survey of the courses offered at Southern University," which was the sole state-supported institution of higher education for African Americans. The resulting report by the Committee of Investigation of Certain Phases of Negro Education in Louisiana cited the "substantial progress" made by the state "in its program for Negro education," yet many issues remained.

African American leaders in New Orleans, sought to ensure that African American history was part of local school curricula as early as the mid-1930s, at least for segregated African American schools. In 1934, Mr. E.W. Eley, Assistant Superintendent of New Orleans Public Schools appointed George Longe, Principal of Albert Wicker Junior High School, to formulate a plan whereby African American history would be correlated with regular history courses throughout New Orleans’ Black public schools. The resulting report entitled “Tentative Approach to Negro History” was the result of that charge.

In 1941, African American citizens of New Orleans organized a Citizens Committee on Equal Education. Five years later, the committee presented to the Orleans Parish School Board this petition, which outlined "glaring inequities which exist between the White and Negro Schools" in New Orleans, including the areas of Kindergarten education, special education classes, vocational training, teacher loads, curriculums, and other areas.

Alexander Pierre Tureaud was a major influence in constructing the legal strategies used to challenge the constitutionality of segregation in civil rights cases during the twentieth century. He served as an advisor and mentor to many leading jurists, public officials, and activists. Tureaud served as principal attorney for the Louisiana NAACP, and as such, was one of the lead attorneys in civil rights cases in the state, particularly those against public school segregation.

On May 30, 1948, Tureaud filed the lawsuit Rosana Aubert v. Orleans Parish School Board in an early effort to equalize public schools in New Orleans. The case did not go to trial, but from it, Tureaud would later construct a second suit to desegregate the city’s public schools.

On November 5, 1952, Tureaud, aided by NAACP lawyers Thurgood Marshall and Robert Carter, filed suit on behalf of Earl Benjamin Bush and other African American students to allow their admittance to White schools in New Orleans. Bush’s father, Oliver Bush, was president of the Macarty Parent-Teachers Association. He and other parents were frustrated by the Orleans Parish School Board’s continued negligence to maintain Macarty Elementary School, which was one of the most dilapidated and overcrowded Black schools in the city.

As one of his first duties as regional field secretary for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, attorney Daniel Ellis Byrd assisted A.P. Tureaud in the Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board efforts.

In this November 1951 letter, Byrd provides the names of many of those who eventually signed on as plaintiffs in the case, including Oliver Bush’s oldest son, Earl Benjamin Bush, who became the named plaintiff in the case. Like many such cases, the court proceedings for Bush were drawn out. In this case, by agreement between the parties, hearings on this complaint were suspended pending the Supreme Court’s decision on the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Judge Wright gave his decision on the Bush case in 1956. New Orleans public schools formerly reserved for Whites were required to admit Black students who lived within the schools’ residential boundaries. Opposition to this change was strong, and the Orleans Parish School Board appealed Wright’s decision. It was not until 1960, eight years after it was initially filed, that Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board was resolved and New Orleans’ segregated school system was declared unconstitutional.

In the above interview, Judge Wright discusses the opposition to his ruling.

Judge Wright’s initial plan called for integration to begin in September 1960, but the date was postponed by request of the school board. Although the date was made public, the selection of which schools to be integrated was not (although word may have leaked prior to the day set for integration).

Wright received hate mail, threats of physical violence, and calls for his impeachment and arrest following his decree in the Bush case in 1956. These were renewed leading up to and during the implementation of his desegregation plan, which he issued in May 1960. This photograph was taken in Shreveport, Louisiana, and dates from November 30, almost a month after schools were integrated. Such impeachment petitions were seen throughout the state of Louisiana.

Although proponents of integration had hoped the Orleans Parish School Board would select schools in the more wealthy neighborhoods around Tulane University and Loyola University, the Board ultimately selected two schools close to neighboring St. Bernard Parish. Louisiana’s pupil placement law gave school boards the authority to determine where a child could attend school. Students were allowed to apply for transfer to integrated schools, and by the October 7 deadline, only 135 of the 6,482 Black six-year-olds and only one of the 3,335 White six-year-olds had applied for transfer. Of the 135 applicants, the five girls who were to integrate McDonogh No. 19 and William Frantz were selected following a rigorous testing process.

The testing procedure employed by the Orleans Parish School Board included a series of aptitude tests and observations by psychologists and other "scientific" observers. For the Board, the selection was intended to be scientific, impartial, and based on numbers...a process they referred to as "the machine."

In this letter from attorney Daniel E. Byrd to the NAACP's Thurgood Marshall, Byrd discusses what he has learned about the testing and the reaction to the selection of only five girls to integrate the New Orleans public schools.

On Friday, November 11, 1960, School Superintendent James F. Redmond summoned the principals of McDonogh No. 19 (John A. Stewart) and William Frantz (Estelle Barkemeyer) to a meeting and informed them that their schools would be integrated the following Monday. The formerly all-White schools were located in lower-income, predominantly White neighborhoods in the Lower Ninth Ward. Stewart’s notes from that meeting and subsequent notes for McDonogh staff displayed next show the rapid preparation faced by the two principals.

Notes for teachers at McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School regarding integration on November 14, 1960.

Instructions for custodians at McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School regarding integration on November 14, 1960.

More than 150 federal marshals were in New Orleans at the time of the school integration to monitor the situation, inspect the schools, and to assist in the execution of Judge Wright’s desegregation plan. Marshals, as well as New Orleans police officers, were stationed at the two schools to prevent violence and accompany the four girls to school.

While the principals of McDonogh No. 19 and William Frantz were notified just a few days before integration was to take place, the students themselves and their families were notified of their selection on Sunday, November 13 – the day before integration was to take place.

In this photograph, Tessie Prevost enters McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School along with her father and U.S. marshals on the morning of November 14th as one of the first African American students to attend the previously all-White school.

In this photograph, under escort of U.S. marshals, Ruby Bridges entered William Frantz Elementary School on November 28, two weeks after she entered the school for the first time.

This newspaper clipping shows young Gail Etienne, one of the three girls who integrated McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, being driven in a car with Federal Marshal Wallace Downs.

On November 12, state superintendent of education Shelby Jackson declared that the day slated for desegregation – Monday, November 14 – would be “a statewide public school holiday.” The Orleans Parish School Board announced that it would not abide by the decree; however, later that week the Louisiana state legislature adopted a resolution urging parent to keep their children out of the two integrated schools.

Pay for teachers in the New Orleans schools, especially those at McDonogh No. 19 and William Frantz, became a tool in the integration battle as the state Legislature attempted to wrest control of the schools from the Orleans Parish School Board.

Rather than see New Orleans schools integrated, some segregationist leaders and lawmakers worked to establish and fund a system of private education though a grants-in-aid program and a proposed sales tax hike.

Leander Perez, Sr. was the political boss of nearby Plaquemines Parish, as well as a staunch supporter of states’ rights and segregation. His firebrand style and vocal opposition to the integration of the public schools in New Orleans placed him at the forefront of efforts to hinder the desegregation process. When that failed, he supported the boycott of the schools and the establishment of private schools.

On the day the schools were integrated, many parents pulled their children from McDonogh No. 19 and William Frantz and began a boycott of both schools. The following day, only 45 white students attended Frantz and only 20 attended McDonogh. By the end of the first week of integration, the white boycott of McDonogh was 100% and remained so for the rest of the school year, except for the brief appearance of the children of John Thompson, which lasted no more than a couple days. As seen here, Thompson himself was picketed at his work place following his decision to briefly send his two sons back to McDonogh No. 19.

Reprisals against those who supported integration, especially White parents who did not participate in the boycotts of McDonogh No. 19 and William Frantz, ranged from harassment and threatening phone calls to loss of employment. The Back to School Trust Fund was established to aid those who were the victims of such reprisals.

As during the integration of Little Rock High School in Arkansas in 1957, news of the events of November 1960 in New Orleans received extensive media coverage beyond the city and the state of Louisiana. This clipping shows a campaign by Harvard University students to send Christmas cards and donations for Gail, Leona, Ruby, and Tessie, the four girls who integrated McDonogh No. 19 and William Frantz

Members of the Orleans Parish School Board faced vilification from both pro- and anti-segregation supports. Following the Board's agreement to comply with desegregation orders, they became the targets of threats by white supremacists and anti-segregationists. Over a year after the integration of the public schools, healing finally began for some in the New Orleans community as evidenced by a public testimonial dinner held in the school board's honor in January 1961.

Save Our Schools (SOS) was formed by Rosa Freeman Keller, Gladys Kahn, and a group of their racially moderate/liberal friends in the fall of 1959. It operated quietly until the Spring of 1960, when it incorporated to “further…the continuation of a statewide system of free public education.” The organization’s membership drew heavily from the Jewish and Quaker communities in the Uptown area of New Orleans.

This fact sheet provided information and answers to questions that might be asked of SOS members in community discussions. It includes answers to such questions as: How many Negro students are attending previously all-White schools? Do White people move away from desegregated school districts? Will desegregation result in lowering academic standards? and Will school desegregation lead to intermarriage?

Save Our Schools circulated pamphlets and flyers about its efforts throughout the community. In at least one instance some of those materials were returned with responses from an irate segregationist as seen on this Close Our Schools? pamphlet.

Following the 1954 Brown v. Board decision, white segregationists throughout the South created a network of organizations that came to be called Citizens’ Councils (commonly known as White Citizens’ Councils). Such councils flourished across Louisiana and spread their message through a robust publishing campaign.

Following the integration of New Orleans' public schools, the Citizens’ Council of Greater New Orleans held a series of meetings and rallies in the Municipal Auditorium.

The Citizens' Council issued a regular bulletin, and this December 1960 issue advertised another rally at the Municipal Auditorium and a membership drive.

This booklet circulated by the Citizens’ Council in New Orleans included photographs of white women kissing African American men, news accounts of racial violence, crime statistics, and a message to New Orleans teachers that school integration would lead to teacher integration and the loss of jobs.

In this interview excerpt, Citizens' Council member Jackson Ricau discusses his view on the benefits of segregation.

Community activists Elizabeth and Walter Rogers organized this petition in 1979, which had been designated as the International Year of the Child, to call for a memorial honoring the four children who integrated William Frantz and McDonogh No. 19. Such a memorial was to coincide with the 20th anniversary of integration. The petition efforts seem to have failed, although historical markers were eventually erected at both school sites.