Ruby Bridges

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Young Ruby Bridges

Ruby Bridges, in full Ruby Nell Bridges, married name Ruby Bridges-Hall, an American activist who became a symbol of the civil rights movement and who was, at age six, the youngest of a group of African American students to integrate schools in the American South. [1]

History

Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, Bridges was the oldest of five children for Lucille and Abon Bridges, farmers in Tylertown, Mississippi. When Ruby was two years old, her parents moved their family to New Orleans, Louisiana in search of better work opportunities. Ruby’s birth year coincided with the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, which ended racial segregation in public schools. [2] When Bridges was in kindergarten, she was one of many African American students in New Orleans who were chosen to take a test determining whether or not she could attend a white school. It is said the test was written to be especially difficult so that students would have a hard time passing. The idea was that if all the African American children failed the test, New Orleans schools might be able to stay segregated for a while longer. In 1960, Bridges' parents were informed by officials from the NAACP that she was one of only six African American students to pass the test. Bridges would be the only African American student to attend the William Frantz School, near her home, and the first Black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. [3]

Ruby Bridges Escorted from School

Contribution

November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked with purpose as she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South. This venture leads to the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement and created a pathway for further integration across the southern parts of the U.S. [4] Ruby and her mother were escorted by four federal marshals to the school every day that year. She walked past crowds screaming vicious slurs at her. Undeterred, she later said she only became frightened when she saw a woman holding a black baby doll in a coffin. She spent her first day in the principal’s office due to the chaos created as angry white parents pulled their children from school. Ardent segregationists withdrew their children permanently. Barbara Henry, a white Boston native, was the only teacher willing to accept Ruby, and all year, she was a class of one. Ruby ate lunch alone and sometimes played with her teacher at recess, but she never missed a day of school that year. [5] On her second day, the circumstances were much the same as the first, and for a while, it looked like Bridges wouldn't be able to attend class. Only one teacher, Barbara Henry, agreed to teach Bridges. She was from Boston and a new teacher to the school. "Mrs. Henry," as Bridges would call her even as an adult, greeted her with open arms. Bridges was the only student in Henry's class because parents pulled or threatened to pull their children from Bridges' class and send them to other schools. For a full year, Henry and Bridges sat side by side at two desks, working on Bridges' lessons. Henry was loving and supportive of Bridges, helping her not only with her studies but also with the difficult experience of being ostracized. Bridges' first few weeks at Frantz School were not easy ones. Several times she was confronted with blatant racism in full view of her federal escorts. On her second day of school, a woman threatened to poison her. After this, the federal marshals allowed her to only eat food from home. On another day, she was "greeted" by a woman displaying a Black doll in a wooden coffin. [6] Bridges was the only student in attendance at the school between January and May 1961.

Bridges completed her elementary education in William Frantz. She later earned a graduate degree in business and worked for fifteen years in travel and tourism. In 1999, she founded the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which specializes in conflict management and diversity education. [7] In 2000, she was made an honorary deputy marshal in a ceremony in Washington, DC. [8]

See also

References

  1. Ruby Bridges.Britannica. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  2. Michal, Debra Ruby Bridges. National Women's History Museum. 2015. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  3. Ruby Bridges Biography. Biography. 27 April 2017. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  4. Halsell, Betti. Ruby Bridges First Day of School Changed History. LA Sentinel. 21 Nov 2019. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  5. Michal, Debra Ruby Bridges. National Women's History Museum. 2015. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  6. Ruby Bridges Biography. Biography. 27 April 2017. Retrieved January 29 2021
  7. Brown, Nikki. Ruby Bridges. 64 Parishes. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  8. Michal, Debra Ruby Bridges. National Women's History Museum. 2015. Retrieved January 29 2021.