Ruby Bridges and the McDonogh Three | Amendment 14 Track

The New Orleans school desegregation crisis was a period of intense public resistance in New Orleans following the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The conflict peaked in 1960, when U.S. Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright ordered that desegregation in New Orleans begin on November 14 of that year.

On November 14, 1960, two New Orleans elementary schools began desegregation. Leona Tate, Tessie Provost, and Gail Etienne, who became known as the McDonogh Three, joined McDonogh 19 Elementary School, while Ruby Bridges joined William Frantz Elementary School. 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 the children continued. During the next few days, other white parents began returning their children to school.

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.