Reference
- Ruby BridgesRuby Bridges, in full Ruby Nell Bridges, married name Ruby Bridges-Hall, (born September 8, 1954, Tylertown, Mississippi, U.S.), 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.
Bridges was the eldest of eight children, born into poverty in the state of Mississippi. When she was four years old, her family moved to New Orleans. Two years later a test was given to the city’s African American schoolchildren to determine which students could enter all-white schools. Bridges passed the test and was selected for enrollment at the city’s William Frantz Elementary School. Her father was initially opposed to her attending an all-white school, but Bridges’s mother convinced him to let Bridges enroll.
Of the six African American students designated to integrate the school, Bridges was the only one to enroll. On November 14, 1960, her first day, she was escorted to school by four federal marshals. Bridges spent the entire day in the principal’s office as irate parents marched into the school to remove their children. On Bridges’s second day, Barbara Henry, a young teacher from Boston, began to teach her. The two worked together in an otherwise vacant classroom for an entire year. Every day as the marshals escorted Bridges to school, they urged her to keep her eyes forward so that—though she could hear the insults and threats of the angry crowd— she would not have to see the racist remarks scrawled across signs or the livid faces of the protesters. Bridges’s main confidants during this period were her teacher and Robert Coles, a renowned child psychologist who studied the reaction of young children toward extreme stress or crisis. Toward the end of the year, the crowds began to thin, and by the following year the school had enrolled several more Black students.
- Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window
Britannica Academic provides access to over 10,000 encyclopedia entries from the Encyclopedia Britannica, magazines and journals, and Britannica videos.
Perspectives
Through My Eyes
In November 1960, all of America watched as a tiny six-year-old black girl, surrounded by federal marshals, walked through a mob of screaming segregationists and into her school. An icon of the civil rights movement, Ruby Bridges chronicles each dramatic step of this pivotal event in history through her own words.
The Story of Ruby Bridges
The inspirational true story of Ruby Bridges.The year is 1960, and six-year-old Ruby Bridges and her family have recently moved from Mississippi to New Orleans in search of a better life. When a judge orders Ruby to attend first grade at William Frantz Elementary, an all-white school, Ruby must face angry mobs of parents who refuse to send their children to school with her. Told with Robert Coles' powerful narrative and dramatically illustrated by George Ford, Ruby's story of courage, faith, and hope continues to resonate more than 60 years later.
This is Your Time
A moving, timely letter about the struggle for racial equality by Ruby Bridges, the first black child to integrate an all-white school in the United States, featuring stunning photographs throughoutOn November 14, 1960, at the age of six, Ruby Bridges became the first black child to integrate an all-white school in New Orleans. Escorted by federal marshals past angry segregationist protesters, young Ruby attended William Frantz Elementary and earned a place in civil rights history.Sixty years later, Ruby has written an impassioned letter to young people engaging in the fight for racial equality. Her words, a call to action imbued with love and grace, are paired with black-and-white photographs from then-and now. This Is Your Time will inspire readers as the struggle for liberty and justice for all continues, and the powerful legacy of Ruby Bridges endures.
Our Children Can Soar
Rosa sat so Martin could march.Martin marched soBarack could run.Barack ran soOur children can soar.This is the seed of a unique and inspirational picture book text, that is part historical, part poetry, and entirely inspirational. It symbolically takes the reader through the cumulative story of the US Civil Rights Movement, showing how select pioneers' achievements led up to this landmark moment, when we have elected our first black President.Each historical figure is rendered by a different award-winning African-American children's book illustrator, representing the singular and vibrant contribution that each figure made.Lending historical substance, the back matter includes brief biographies of: George Washington Carver, Jesse Owens, Hattie McDaniel, Ella Fitzgerald, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama.
Facing a Crowd
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Ruby Bridges Hall discusses saying prayers when she was surrounded by a mob and afraid.
Paying the Price for Education
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowRuby Bridges Hall reflects on integration; white families crossing a picket line; and the effect on her family.
A Class of One: An Interview with Ruby Bridges
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowIn 1960, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school. Thirty-seven years later, Ruby Bridges Hall discusses her memories of the first day she entered her new school in New Orleans; her first year when she was in a class of one, and her efforts to improve education. She spoke with PBS NewsHour correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault in this 1997 interview. Original broadcast date: February 18, 1997.
Online Resources
- Ruby BridgesSix-year-old Ruby smiled at her reflection in the mirror. Her mother had dressed her in a beautifully ironed white dress with matching shoes and socks. She even had a white ribbon in her hair. She was getting ready for her first day in a...
- A Tribute to the Power of a Teacher-The Ruby Bridges StoryBecause no teacher in New Orleans would agree to teach Ruby, and no other families in New Orleans would send their children to Ruby's first grade classroom, Barbara Henry came from Boston to New Orleans and spent the entire school year teaching one child. What if, rather than stand by while children born into poverty are allowed to underachieve, while immigrant children's first language is disregarded, while children with disabilities are underestimated, while Black boys are routinely expelled-what if-we teachers stood up and stepped away from the crowd to say we objected and would no longer go along with these injustices?
Desegregating the South
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowRuby Bridges recalls being escorted to a New Orleans white school in 1960. Her image of being harassed by white parents became a powerful Civil Rights icon.