Leona Tate was six years old when she and fellow first graders Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost walked up the 18 stairs to attend McDonogh 19 School in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. On November 14, 1960 these three girls, along with Ruby Bridges a few blocks away, were the first African Americans to integrate elementary schools in the Deep South. In 2009, Ms. Tate formed the Leona Tate Foundation for Change so that she might purchase her former school, which was closed in 2004 and sustained structural damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Beginning Spring 2021, this Civil Rights Era Pioneer, together with her partners, will welcome visitors into the newly renamed Tate, Etienne, Prevost Interpretive Center. A National Historic Landmark, the “TEP Center” campus anchors the neighborhood, providing a safe location for both young and old to learn Black History and experience methods in non-violent resistance.