My Fourth Blog Post

 

Ruby Bridges: How it all Began

Ruby Bridges was the first black student to enter an all white school, and faced many challenges in the process. At a young age, Ruby helped end segregation in schools, and paved the way for the Civil Rights movement. This is the story of Ruby Bridges. 

It all started with the Brown v. The Board of Education trial. A man named Oliver Brown from Topeka, Kansas, along with twelve other parents sued their local school system for not allowing their children to attend the school, and forcing them to go to schools much farther away. All because the school was for white students only. Thurgood Marshall argued for them that segregated schools would never be equal. All nine Supreme Court Justices decided in favor of Oliver Brown, and in 1954, segregation was officially illegal in both schools, and everywhere else. This life changing event was just the start of what was yet to come in the Civil Rights movement. Especially for schools. 

Then, in 1960, young Ruby Bridges became the first black student to attend an all white school. When she was walking to school, she had to be escorted by her mother, and US marshals because of the protesters all around on her walk to her new school. Little Ruby couldn’t grasp why people were mad at what she was doing. She thought it was a Mardi Gras celebration because of the amount of people that came to protest against what she was doing. She faced many more challenges in school as well. Before her first day, Ruby had to take an exam that was written to make it less likely for her to pass. On her first day, she had to stay in the principal's office all day because of the angry mobs. Many white parents also pulled their kids out of classes, and some teachers even refused to teach Ruby. Only Miss Henry, a teacher from Boston who moved to Louisiana, was willing to teach young Ruby, and ended up becoming her only confidante, and friend. According to Ruby Bridges herself,”Don’t follow the path. Go where there is no path, and start a trail.” 

Ruby ended up graduating from a desegregated high school, became a travel agent, married, and had four sons. She was also reunited in the 1990s with her first teacher, Miss Henry, and the pair did a few speaking engagements together. Ruby later wrote about her experiences in two books, winning herself the Carter G. Woodson Book Award. Ruby has been a lifelong activist for racial equality, and established the Ruby Bridges Foundation, to promote tolerance, and create change through education. In 2000, she was even made an honorary deputy marshal, at a ceremony in Washington DC. According to Ruby Bridges herself,”From age 7 to about 37, I had a normal life and not a very easy one.”

Ruby Bridges is still alive today, and has become an activist for racial change, and equality. Today, she is not only an activist, but also an author, and is still running the Ruby Bridges Foundation. She became a symbol for black vulnerability when she was only six years old, and even though she was still a little girl, protesters and mobs didn’t stop her from changing history. 

Bibliography

Harrison, Vashti. Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2017. google.com, chrome-extension://feepmdlmhplaojabeoecaobfmibooaid/https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1OKsxGEh5m8bKVbaUWmOxxUNI6Kypzi0v&export=download&filename=Attachment:%20PDF:%20Ella%20Mossey%20-%20Unsung%20Heroes-Choices%202&ClassroomRetUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fclassroom.googl. Accessed 11 February 2021.

Michaels, Debra. “Ruby Bridges.” womenshistory.org, 2015, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges. Accessed 11 February 2021.

Quote Sources:

https://successstory.com/quote/ruby-bridges

https://misemanasantadearahal.blogspot.com/2019/06/ruby-bridges-famous-quotes.html