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On September 8, 1954, Ruby Bridges was born, mere months after the Brown vs Board of Education ruling declared segregated schools to be unconstitutional. The Bridges family moved from Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana, when Ruby was a baby.
Brown vs Board of Education and the Delay of Integration
Following the Brown vs Board of Education ruling, many schools delayed integration. One school in Virginia chose to close rather than to integrate. And of course, the nine students who were the first to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957 required the National Guard to protect them from the angry white mob of protestors.
As with many schools in the southern states, Louisiana instituted additional rules that they used to prevent integration, including subjecting African American children to additional “testing” to prove their intellectual aptitude. In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges took that test. She was one of six children who passed. Federal Judge Skelly Wright ordered the first mandatory day of school integration to be on November 14, 1960. Since Ruby had passed the preliminary test, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People connected with her parents to enroll her at William Frantz Elementary School to integrate it.
The six students were split up between four different schools, and little Ruby was the only one to go to William Frantz. On the morning of November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby, flanked by U.S. Marshals, entered the formerly all-white elementary school.
The racism she faced from the mob of her neighbors was severe. One white woman stood outside the school holding a small casket with a Black baby doll inside (the photo is found in the book “Through My Eyes”). Another threatened to poison her food. The U.S. Marshals had to escort her to and from school every day. Her protective escort lasted the entire school year, though the local police department took over after the initial and most dangerous protests began to dissipate.
All of Ruby’s classmates were pulled out for the year and she was the only student in her class for her first year of public school.
Ruby Bridges has continued her activism, writing books to help children understand racism and fight it. The Ruby Bridges Foundation serves as a way to educate more children about the negative effects of racism and the importance of acceptance of others.
In California, November 14 is officially designated as Ruby Bridges Day, which is celebrated by encouraging children to walk to school on that day and remember Ms. Bridges’ experience. Sign up your student (or start a new chapter at your school!) on the Ruby Bridges Foundation website.
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This Is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges, illustrated by Margo Lundell
