Ping and Echo: School Segregation

Welcome to Ping and Echo, a daily newsletter that shares one amazing podcast episode guaranteed to be a great listen for kids and their families. Each newsletter includes links to articles, videos, and activities related to the podcast so you can turn every episode into an adventure.

Today’s episode is from Kitchen Sisters Present podcast and it takes us back to the first day of school in New Orleans in 1960, “when four six-year-old girls flanked by Federal Marshals, walked through screaming crowds and policemen on horseback as they approached their new schools for the first time.” The Kitchen Sisters recount this history through the voices of those girls - Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost Williams, and Gail Etienne Stripling - as well as the U.S. Marshals who protected them. From there, the podcast explores how the people at the center of this story have fought to preserve and promote this history. For many kids around the country we are nearing the end of a strange and unusual school year. As we bring this school year to a close we think this podcast is an important reminder of the history of struggle for educational justice, a struggle that continues today.

• Podcast: Kitchen Sisters Present 

• Episode: First Day of School—1960, New Orleans 

• URL:  http://www.kitchensisters.org/present/first-day-of-school-1960-new-orleans/

• Length: 15 minutes  

I’ll always give you a heads up if there is anything in the podcast that might surprise or worry kids. While the scenes described here may feel intense to some kids we didn’t find anything in this story that kids can’t handle.  

After you listen to the episode you can work on educational justice in your community with the links and activities below:

• Six Activities for Students to Investigate School Segregation and Educational Inequality

• Learn about and support the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s work on education equality

• Explore the resources, history and action steps at Facing History and Ourselves

Read up on the history behind this episode with these links:

• Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City: How one school became a battleground over which children benefit from a separate and unequal system. - NY Times Magazine

• Segregation worse in schools 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education - Seattle Times

• White parents are enabling school segregation — if it doesn't hurt their own kids: This is what happens when anti-racism is no longer a major goal of educational policy - NBCNews

• What White Kids Learn About Race in School - Boston Review

The name Ping and Echo comes from sonar technology which relies on sending out “pings” and receiving back “echos” to discover the world around you. You can send us pictures of the art and activities created by your kids. Email them to pingandecho@gmail.com and we’ll post all your echos on our Instagram and our Twitter page.

Thanks for lending us your ears and your inbox.

Ruby, Toby, and Josh

* Photo: U.S. Marshals escort Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost from McDonogh #19, November 14, 1960.