At just six years old, Tessie Prevost was key in the desegregation of New Orleans schools when she attended McDonogh 19 Elementary School in 1960.

Prevost died at the age of 69 on July 6.

She and her two classmates Gail Etienne and Leona Tate, along with Ruby Bridges attending nearby William Frantz Elementary School, were among the first Black students to attend a desegregated school in Louisiana. 

Federal courts had forced the system to abide by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. the Board of Education decision which found segregated schools were unconstitutional.

During their time at McDonogh 19 Elementary School, the three faced hostility from students and their parents, but formed a long-lasting bond. 

“Facing intense hostility and unimaginable challenges, her courage paved the way for greater educational equality throughout the United States,” New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement.

“Tessie Prevost will be remembered not only for her role in the Civil Rights Movement but also for her enduring spirit and commitment to a more inclusive society.”

Leona Tate, 69, spoke with As It Happens guest host Peter Armstrong about her friend, and what they went through together. Here’s part of that conversation.

Leona, I’m so sorry for your loss. How are you doing? 

I’m doing good. I don’t know, I just think I’m just in a state of shock because I just can’t believe that our little link is broken. You know, I can’t believe that. 

So many of us are hearing the stories to remember Tessie Prevost. What do you remember on this day? 

I just remember all that we did together and as a child and even as adults, we stay connected. We didn’t talk every day, and it might have been not even [every] year, but, I mean, once we did start talking, it was like we’d never stop talking.

It’s just hard even, because Tessie was always the self-contained one and had her own mind and was warm-spirited and her smile, it was just great. She had an infectious smile and she was very supportive of friends and family and the things that we had done.

How did you three end up being picked as the ones that integrated [at] McDonogh 19 Elementary School in the first place? 

It was picked from a very hard criteria. Our family had applied to a newspaper article, put an application in for kids that lived in a community where we lived, Black kids that lived in this community. 

We were psychologically tested at five years old. Understand that it was 140 families that applied. They only chose five families, but only four participated. It was three of us at McDonogh 19 Elementary School and Ruby Bridges at William Frantz [Elementary School]. And one girl just didn’t fit in the criteria so that she couldn’t be a part of it. 

The line that stood out in that whole interview that you guys did [with CBS], she said that she felt protected. How were you feeling that first day?

I felt very comfortable, even though I didn’t know what was really going on. Because when I pulled up in front and saw that mass of people, the only thing I could relate it to was that a parade was coming, because I knew a parade passed in front of the street in front of this building. 

And that’s what it looked like to me. It looked like a crowd of people just waiting for the parade to come. I didn’t pick up on the anger. I didn’t pick up on everybody being white.

But I was with my mama, you know, and I know my mama was strong-willed. She didn’t take no mess. So I felt very comfortable being with her. And then, the marshals really made us feel comfortable. 

What did the white students and their families do? How did they react? 

I remember trying to speak to a white girl and it was like I was invisible. She didn’t look at me. She didn’t do anything. But their parents started coming in and just taking them out of class and taking them out [of] the whole school. By the end of the day, we were the only three students in the entire building. And that lasted a year and a half.

So what does a typical day at school become for you three? I mean, that’s a pretty weird way to go through school. 

The only problem we had is we couldn’t play outside in the yard. We had school just like a normal school day. I mean, we didn’t go in the cafeteria, we didn’t eat from the school. We had to bring our food and beverages. 

We couldn’t see out of the windows and nobody could see in because the windows were all papered up. 

Because there would be demonstrations, I suppose. 

Oh, yeah. We could hear them all day. They were out there all day. We could hear them. But once we got in the building and couldn’t see anything, we kind of eventually started tuning it out.

As big as this building is, we were confined to one part of that building, and I’m sure it was for safety reasons. 

At such a young age, it is so hard for me to wrap my head around what that must have been like. What did it mean to you then and in retrospect, to have Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne with you in that moment? 

Well, we must have created a bond between the three of us the first day we got here, because that entire time we were waiting to be placed in the classroom, we started playing hopscotch together on the tiles of the floor. 

But we were prepared to know that whatever we did, we had to stay together. Wherever we moved in the building, it had to be all three of us, not just one of us.

How do you hope all these people that are hearing her story and remembering her story, how do you hope they remember Tessie Prevost?

I want them to remember her as a soldier. I want them to take that torch that she was once a leader of and carry it on. It doesn’t matter who sits next to you, what colour skin is next to you, get the education you need and just go forward.