Ruby Bridges has always been an inspiration of mine. She had courage, bravery and confidence from such a young age, which I truly admire.
If you do not know about Bridges, she was an African American civil rights activist. She was the first Black child to attend William Franz Elementary School, an all-white school in New Orleans, Louisiana in November 1960.
Bridges is the girl depicted in Norman Rockwell’s painting, ‘‘The Problem We All Live With.’’ It is a painting of her being walked into school with a racial slur written on the tomato splattered wall behind her. This provided a powerful image during the Civil Rights Era.
Bridges was only six-years-old during the desegregation movement. She and her mother had to be escorted into school by U.S. marshals for protection because angry parents and other protesters waited outside of the school. They protested when she walked into school each morning.
Bridges was the only student in her class for a while because the white parents refused to let their kids go to school with a Black child. Eventually, parents sent their kids to school, but the principal of the school, who was against desegregation, hid them from Bridges and did not combine their classes. Bridges’ teacher, Ms. Barbara Henry was the only teacher in the school who agreed to teach her. Henry begged the principal to allow the children to interact since desegregation was now the law.
It is still difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that so many people including adults protested a six-year-old girl going to school, just because she was Black. I am glad that we live in a time where diversity is better accepted than it used to be, but there is definitely still more work to be done.
I read “The Story of Ruby Bridges” (1995) by Robert Cole, as a kid and it still resonates with me today.
I cannot begin to imagine what that experience was like for her. Bridges was such a young child going to school, but she faced the wrath and anger of a huge crowd of white adults for days. Her safety was potentially in danger, but she stilled showed up to school every day.
Bridges continued her legacy as an author, activist and speaker. She started the Ruby Bridges Foundation in 1999. The foundation promotes tolerance and accepting people’s differences.
Bridges played a big role in the desegregation movement. Celebrating diversity and allowing people of every race in school would not be possible without the courageous, resilient students who dealt with the rage of people who were so supportive of segregation. Bridges provided hope for a lot of children during the Civil Rights Era and following.