Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) January 28, 1961
PUPIL BOYCOTTSTAND BROKEN
White Third Grader Enters McDonogh 19
A third-grade white boy went to school at McDonogh No. 19 Friday, the first white child in the school since Nov. 17.
Three Negro first-grade girls have been attending the school since the federal court ordered school desegregation here Nov. 11.
It was a quiet day in the school Thursday morning shortly after the boy’s arrival, which came as a surprise.
Dr. James F. Redmond, school super-intendent, said he was informed of the boy’s entry by the McDonogh principal, John A. Stewart, after the boy arrived.
DOING ‘SAME WORK’
Dr. Redmond said Stewart told him that the boy’s father had brought him to school because he was “tired of seeing his boy go over the same work he did last year.”
The boy, identified subsequently as Gregory Thompson, had been attending school in St. Bernard.
Dr. Redmond said the boy had never attended McDonogh school before but had enrolled in the Jackson Elementary school in September before going to school in St. Bernard.
Dr. Redmond, who said he had not talked to the father, said he received his information from Stewart, the principal.
The principal also told him, Dr. Redmond asserted, that the boy’s father was enrolling his other son, now ill, in McDonogh No. 19 on Monday.
WOMEN YELLING
About 20 white women stood across the street and yelled “traitor” as the third grader walked out of school with federal escort.
page break: Father of white boy who attended McDonogh 19 school Friday reported fired from job in drug store. See. 1, Page 8.
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Stewart told reporters that any questions about the boy would have to be answered by Dr. Redmond.
Asked if he expected any more new enrollments, he replied, “The French have a way of saying it, ‘Je ne seis pas.’”
The first semester ended Wednesday.
Before desegregation the school at 5919 St. Claude provided education for about 500 pupils. The white attendance fell off to nothing only three days after desegregation.
Most of the day Thursday there were only about six or eight women across the street from the school. After the three Negro children were booed at 2:55 p.m., dismissal time, the white women left.
A deputy US marshal provided the escort for the children leaving school Thursday. Several city policemen cruised the area in cars.
The city’s other desegregated school, William T. Frantz, also in the downtown area, and an attendance of seven white children and one Negro Thursday.
