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    • Jul 12, 2020

Leona Tate, Developers Break Ground on New Civil Rights Center in Old McDonogh 19 Building


Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost hold hands as they walk up the stairs of the McDonogh 19 Elementary School to the official entrance, during the groundbreaking ceremony on March 9, 2020. The staircase railing is decorated with red, white, and black balloons, and ceremony attendees are scattered behind them on the building's front lawn.

From left to right: Leona Tate, Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost climb the stairs of the former McDonogh 19 School, the same steps they climbed as little girls when they desegregated the school in 1960, as they take a tour of the building before a groundbreaking ceremony for the school that is now owned by the Leona Tate Foundation for Change and will be turned into an anti-racism center and affordable housing units.


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