New Orleans school integration
- Title:
- New Orleans school integration
- Years:
- 1960
- Description:
- Two years following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, Federal District Court Judge, J. Skelly Wright, ordered the Orleans Parish School Board to design an effective plan for the desegregation of New Orleans' public schools. The ruling aroused significant local opposition, however, and parents, school board members, city leaders, and elected officials moved to secure state legislation to overturn Wright's decision. After four years of circumventing the court-ordered desegregation, the school board finally put in place a plan to integrate the city's public schools in 1960. The plan called for the integration of two New Orleans schools, both located in the impoverished Ninth Ward, on a one-grade-per-year basis, beginning with the first grade. On November 14, 1960, four girls, shielded and protected by armed United States marshals, integrated the two schools; Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, Gaile Etienne entering McDonogh 19 and Ruby Bridges entering William Frantz. In the days following the integration, riots led by staunch segregationists erupted throughout the city and student enrollments at the two desegregated schools dwindled, as parents chose to enroll their children in the city's private schools. The integration of New Orleans' public schools drew national criticism from those who condemned segregationists for their hostile reactions and prompted acclaimed American painter, Norman Rockwell, to paint "The Problem We All Live With," which depicted four federal marshals escorting six-year-old Ruby Bridges to school on her first day at William Frantz.
- Archival Collections And Reference Resources:
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20 items in 2 collections (expand all)
64 Parishes
- Date of Original:
- 2022
- Collection:
- 64 Parishes
- Contributing Institution:
- Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
Series of WSB-TV newsfilm clips in which a reporter interviews Orleans Parish School Board member Matthew Sutherland; white men meet in offices and outside office buildings; Louisiana attorney general Jack Gremillion speaks to a reporter; Louisiana legislators speak about court-ordered school integration; white demonstrators protest the integration of New Orleans schools; a white man speaks at a Citizens' Council rally; and reporters speak to several local leaders outside of district court in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1960 November
- Creator:
- WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)
- Date of Original:
- 1960-11
- Collection:
- WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection
- Contributing Institution:
- Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection
Series of WSB-TV newsfilm clips of a paid newspaper advertisement urging community support for the Orleans Parish School Board and white demonstrators protesting court-ordered desegregation at McDonogh 19 and William Frantz elementary schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1960 November and December
- Creator:
- WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)
- Date of Original:
- 1960-11-01
- Collection:
- WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection
- Contributing Institution:
- Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection
Series of WSB-TV newsfilm clips of a press conference held by the Orleans Parish School Board; the office of a news organization; a man reading a report to the press; state representative John S. Garrett of Claiborne Parish speaking at a White Citizens' Council rally; white protesters and United States marshals at the court-ordered desegregation of William Frantz and McDonogh 19 elementary schools; and comments by reporter Ray Moore about school integration in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1960 November
- Creator:
- WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)
- Date of Original:
- 1960-11
- Collection:
- WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection
- Contributing Institution:
- Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection
Series of WSB-TV newsfilm clips of an interracial classroom, interviews with Armand Duvio and Louise Tate, a reporter speaking about the influence of the Louisiana legislature, and outtakes from commentary on the school integration crisis in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1960 December
- Creator:
- WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)
- Date of Original:
- 1960-12-01
- Collection:
- WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection
- Contributing Institution:
- Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection
Series of WSB-TV newsfilm clips of comments regarding integration of education in Georgia by Board of Regents member Roy V. Harris and House of Representatives members Frank Twitty and A'Delbert Bowen in Atlanta, Georgia, 1961 January
- Creator:
- WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)
- Date of Original:
- 1961-01-00
- Collection:
- WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection
- Contributing Institution:
- Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection
WSB-TV newsfilm clip of African American children and their mothers apparently registering to attend previously all-white Catholic elementary schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1962 June 5
- Creator:
- WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)
- Date of Original:
- 1962-06-05
- Collection:
- WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection
- Contributing Institution:
- Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection