I have this picture hanging in my office. It’s of six year old Ruby Bridges being escorted into William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. She became the first African-American child to attend an all white elementary school in the South. The determined face of this beautiful little girl is an inspiration to me as an example of courage and determination. My eyes are often drawn to the men within the school – the police officer and school official in the background. The looks of mockery and condemnation are hard for me to ignore. Recently I have learned more of the story of this event that is worth sharing.
Ruby was one of six children chosen to enter the all white school. Of those six children she was the only one who actually enrolled. Her father was against her enrolling, but her mother convinced him that it would be alright. She was escorted into the school by four federal marshals. She spent her first day of school in the Principal’s office as scores of white parents came in to remove their children from school in protest. Every day Ruby went to school she was escorted by Federal marshals who urged her to keep her eyes forward and ignore the racial insults and threats hurled at her by white parents and fellow students.
All of the teachers except one refused to teach her. A teacher named Barbara Henry who originated from Boston taught her by herself in a one person classroom. Ruby would bring her lunch to school each day because of the threats of poisoning. There were protests, boycotts, threats and chaos at the school. As she walked to school a woman held up a black baby doll in a coffin.
One of the protests was witnessed by author John Steinbeck who wrote, “No newspaper had printed the words these women shouted. It was indicated that they were indelicate, some even said obscene. I heard the words, bestial and filthy and degenerate. In a long and unprotected life I have seen seen and heard the vomiting of demonic humans before. Why then did these screams fill me with a shocked and sickened sorrow?”
Ruby Bridges is now 67 years old. She is younger that my parents. This is not ancient history – basically one generation ago. Bridges bravery inspired the Norman Rockwell painting: The Problem We all Live With.
“Each and every one of us is born with a clean heart. Our babies know nothing about hate or racism. But soon they begin to learn – and only from us. We keep racism alive. We pass it on to our children. We owe it to our children to help them keep their clean start.” Ruby Bridges
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ruby-Bridges