*On this date in 1937 we affirm William Frantz Elementary School.
Along with McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, it was involved in the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on that date. This was an American elementary school located at 3811 North Galvez Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. The school was built in 1937. It was designed in understated Art Deco style by the school board's architect E.A. Christy.
William Frantz Elementary School was one of the first all-white elementary schools in the Deep South to be integrated when Ruby Bridges became the first Black student to attend the school. That year, Bridges was six years of age, her parents responded to a request from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and volunteered her to participate in the integration of the New Orleans school system. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 as William Frantz School, it closed in 2008.
In August 2013, William Frantz Elementary became the home to the new Akili Academy, a public, open-enrollment charter school that currently hosts grades K-6, with plans to expand to K-8 in the coming years. In 2014, a statue of Ruby Bridges was unveiled in the courtyard of the School.
