Director's Brief
I and the team at Sunstar Gate Productions and Fish Pot Studios are proud we have the honor of paying it forward in producing this landmark made for television event to commemorate the Anniversary of Desegregation and the New Orleans & Louisiana Resistance Movement.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the 60th Anniversary weekend was cancelled and the completion of the city's FIRST Civil Rights Interpretive Center timeline was pushed back to 2022.
On May 4, 2022, Leona Tate, Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost made history again when the officially opened its doors of the Tate, Etienne and Prevost (TEP) Civil Rights Interpretive Center with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony www.TepCenter.org We will film this milestone and are in the final stretch to complete the project for their full circle moments in time!
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In Solidarity,
Diedra Meredith -
Creator/Executive Producer/Director
Watch The Teaser
Logline: Sunni Patterson hosts The New Orleans Legacy Project docuseries to honor and celebrate America's little soldier girls (Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost and Ruby Bridges) and the powerful freedom fighters of the New Orleans and Louisiana Resistance Movement who moved before them, with them and beyond.
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Synopsis: In a forgotten chapter of American civil rights history, four young girls sparked a revolution in New Orleans that would forever transform education in the Deep South. The New Orleans Four - Tessie Prevost, Ruby Bridges, Leona Tate, and Gail Etienne - walked bravely into history, protected by U.S. Marshals as they shattered the walls of segregation in New Orleans public schools. While Ruby Bridges' story has captured national attention, the courage of her fellow Civil Rights Pioneers has remained in the shadows of history.
These brave girls, alongside the fearless Freedom Fighters of the New Orleans & Louisiana Resistance Movement, faced down hatred with unwavering dignity. Through peaceful protests, from lunch counter sit-ins to strategic boycotts, they challenged the crushing weight of Jim Crow laws. The New Orleans Legacy Project docuseries finally illuminates this pivotal movement through the voices of the surviving living legends. Their testimonies paint a vivid portrait of a city that is the cradle for equal, where ordinary people accomplished extraordinary feats. Like their counterparts in Little Rock, these civil rights pioneers didn't just change a city - they helped reshape a nation's conscience, proving that even the youngest among us can bend the arc of history toward justice.
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Thanks to the generous corporate gift from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Friends of The Little Rock Nine, The Tollette Family, US Bank, and New Orleans National Park Service, this project was made possible. The New Orleans Four Legacy Tribute is currently in production to air later. We've prepared a rough cut first look teaser for viewing.
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