5 Facts About Ruby Bridges
5 Facts About Ruby Bridges, Who Integrated A New Orleans School On This Day In 1965
On Nov. 14, 1965, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges made history when she stepped foot in William Frantz Elementary School, becoming the first Black student to integrate into the New Orleans school. To celebrate the anniversary of this landmark moment in Civil Rights, here are five facts about Ruby Bridges.
Ruby Bridges Was Part of the New Orleans Four
Ruby Bridges was one of four young girls selected to integrate New Orleans schools. While the Brown v. the Board of Education ruling declared segregated schools were illegal in 1954, many schools stalled the integration for as long as they could. New Orleans education officials required Black students to pass a challenging exam of their own creation before they could integrate into historically white schools.
“I’ve been told that it was set up so that kids would have a hard time passing,” Ruby Bridges wrote in her book, according to the Washington Post. “If all the Black children had failed, the white school board might have had a way to keep the schools segregated for a while longer.”
Ruby Bridges, Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost were the four who passed the test and were selected for integration. Etienne, Prevost, and Tate integrated McDonogh 19 Elementary School, while Bridges integrated William Frantz Elementary School.
U.S. Marshals Had To Escort Ruby Bridges To School
New Orleans’s white population was not happy about their schools being integrated, and they were sure to let Ruby Bridges know. U.S. Marshals had to escort Ruby Bridges to school every day because of the constant presence of protesters outside William Frantz Elementary School.
The protestors were largely the parents of white students at the school, and they would frequently chant things like “Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want to integrate.” One woman threatened to poison Bridges, resulting in her only being allowed to eat food that was prepared at home. Bridges even recounts one of the protestors carrying a makeshift casket with a doll of a Black schoolgirl inside.
“I used to have nightmares about the box,” Ruby told NPR about seeing the coffin outside of her school. “Those are the days that I distinctly remember being really, really frightened.”
Every Teacher Except One Refused To Teach Ruby Bridges
It wasn’t just the white parents who protested Ruby Bridges’ integration; the teachers at William Frantz refused to teach her as well. Barbara Henry, a Boston transplant, was the only teacher willing to take on Ruby Bridges as a student. This resulted in all the white parents withdrawing their kids from Henry’s class. “It was just the two of us for the entire year,” Ruby wrote in a 2010 essay for the Washington Post marking the 50th anniversary. “She never missed a day, and neither did I.”
Bridges fondly remembers her first year with Henry, especially since her second year was a struggle as her teacher refused to teach her. While she had to deal with protesters, empty classrooms, and being the only Black student during her first year at William Frantz, her experience progressively smoothed out as more Black students enrolled each fall. By the end of her time at William Frantz, Ruby Bridges recalled that the school was evenly integrated.
In 1999, She Founded The Ruby Bridges Foundation
Tragedy struck Ruby Bridges’ family after her brother was murdered in 1993. This incident resulted in her returning to New Orleans to help take care of his four daughters, who also attended William Frantz Elementary School. “I ended up back at Frantz, taking his daughters to school because they lived in the same neighborhood,” Bridges told People magazine in 2020. “Once I got inside, I was so disappointed to see that the school was really deteriorating. I felt like, ‘My goodness, all the sacrifices that were made here in this building — it’s just going to waste.’ ”
The experience inspired her to create The Ruby Bridges Foundation in 1999. The foundation aims to promote racial equity through education. “My message is really that racism has no place in the hearts and minds of our children,” Bridges says on the foundation’s website.
Schools Nationwide Celebrate Ruby Bridges With Walk To School Day
In 2018, a group of students at Martin Elementary in South San Francisco learned about the story of Ruby Bridges and wondered why there wasn’t an event to commemorate her. The students pitched the idea to the California State Legislature, resulting in Nov. 14 being declared as Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. In the years since, more and more schools nationwide have begun celebrating Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. The event has students all walking to school, much like Ruby Bridges did, and engaging in a day of dialogue to learn about Ruby Bridges and the importance of racial tolerance.
As America more and more feels like it’s giving in to the racism it was built on, it’s heartening to know that the next generation is still finding inspiration in the story of Ruby Bridges.
SEE ALSO:
What Ruby Bridges Taught Us: The Lesson America Still Hasn’t Learned
