Remembering Ruby
Imagine being the new girl in school. No one knows you and yet you feel like everyone already hates you and judges you. That might be a somewhat typical experience, but for one girl it was more than just being the new girl. It was being the first girl, the first African American girl, to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. She didn’t feel like everyone hated her, she knew they did because most of them had no problem making that known. The year was 1960, Ruby was six years old when she marched up the steps of William Frantz Elementary School. She was escorted by U.S. marshals in order to protect her from the roaring crowd that engulfed the front entrance of the school. In the height of the Civil Rights movement, the last thing white southerners wanted to see was a little black girl attend an all-white school. The notion that whites were superior to blacks still hung high in the streets of New Orleans.
Ruby was just a toddler when she moved from her grandparents’ farm in Mississippi to New Orleans. Her parents, Lucille and Abon, moved to the bigger city in hopes of creating a better life for their family. Ruby’s journey began when she was chosen during her kindergarten year to take a test that would determine if she was eligible to attend a white school. Out of the many African American students chosen to take the test, only six passed. Some people believed the test was extremely strenuous in order to keep black children from passing and out of the white schools. Ruby was one of the six that had passed. Her parents soon discovered that their child would be the first African American child to attend an all-white school in the southern states. They faced the difficult decision of putting Ruby into a school where they knew she would be taunted for the color of her skin, or keeping her in an all-black school that would accept her for who she was. Both of her parents knew that Ruby would be given different opportunities, better opportunities, at William Frantz elementary, than if she were to stay at her current elementary school. When the time came, Lucille and Abon agreed that Ruby would attend William Frantz.
Although school started in September, Ruby wasn’t able to attend the all-white school until November, due to law-makers and citizens trying every loophole in order to keep schools segregated. On November 14th 1960, Ruby was escorted by her nervous mother, and four U.S. marshals up the stairs of her new school. Ruby was faced with an angry crowd of people as she entered the building. She braved people screaming and shouting racial slurs and obscenities, some holding signs and black baby dolls that had been mutilated. Ruby spent her first day at William Frantz in the principal’s office in order to keep her away from all of the chaos and potential harm. As Ruby suited up for battle each day as she prepared for school, her parents braved a different war. In protest to Ruby attending the elementary school, her parents were denied shopping at local stores, her father lost his job, and her grandparents were evicted from the farm in which they so loved, the farm in which she spent her earlier years of her childhood.
As time went on and more schools accepted black students, until all schools eventually became desegregated. Ruby graduated high school and after becoming a travel agent, she started The Ruby Bridges Foundation. She became well known for her work as a civil rights activist.
Ruby was just a little girl who went to school, just doing what she was supposed to do. A small child who had a slew of adults hating her just for the color of her skin, something no small child will ever understand. She faced angry crowds and classrooms full of hatred and never once backed down. She is a hero and a courageous soul who ventured past where anyone she had ever known had gone. She set an example for all children and forwarded the movement of desegregation in public schools. She is remembered today throughout several books and even a movie. There have been various art projects dedicated to her memory and her bravery. Famous artist Norman Rockwall has even done a piece inspired by her journey. Ruby remains one of the bravest children in American History and her story deserves to be told time and time again.
Michals, Debra. “Ruby Bridges.” National Women’s History Museum. National Women’s History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.
Chicago – Michals, Debra. “Ruby Bridges.” National Women’s History Museum.” 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges.
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