Who Is Ruby Bridges

HER hair neatly tied back and her white socks folded over above clean black shoes, Ruby Bridges looked anything but a revolutionary. But that's exactly what she became. At just six-years-old Bridges became the first black child to attend the white only William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans.
 

She arrived at school on November 14, 1960 and was escorted into the school by Federal marshalls, as angry parents and citizens screamed abuse outside. After she was escorted inside, hordes of parents rushed in to remove their children. More than 500 children were taken out of school that day.

"I remember turning onto the street. I saw barricades and police officers and people everywhere. "When I saw all of that I thought it was mardi gras. I had no idea they were here to keep me out of the school. I wasn't (afraid). My parents said 'Ruby you're going to a new school today and you'd better behave'. "Once I got in the school all of these people rushed inside the building. They were taking out their children. Over 500 kids walked out of school that day."

Six years earlier the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) won a legal victory against the Board of Education which ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional. For years afterwards many schools refused to integrate, until the day Ruby walked into William Franz.

Ruby was recently interviewed for a PBS series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. She still lives in New Orleans where she worked for some time as a travel agent. She also chairs the Ruby Bridges Foundation which was formed to promote "the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences".

Although her family suffered as a result of her attending the school, her attitude now is one of forgiveness. "They didn't see a child. They saw change and what they thought was being taken from them. They never saw a child."