When Ruby Bridges was only six years old, she was given the opportunity to attend a predominantly white primary school in the South. This event sparked her interest in the civil rights movement. In the 1960s, when Bridges was still a little child, the Southern States of the United States of America were rife with segregation and bigotry.
The fact that Bridges was the youngest person to desegregate an all-white school in the South brought him a great deal of notoriety.
Where Was Ruby Bridges Born
In November 1960, at the age of six, Ruby Bridges made history by being the first African American student to enrol in a Southern primary school, furthering the fight of civil rights.
Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, to farmers Lucille and Abon Bridges. In search of greater job possibilities, Ruby’s parents uprooted the family and relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana, when Ruby was just two years old.
Ruby was born the same year that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that racial segregation in public schools must end, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
Although southern states persisted in their resistance to integration, Ruby was able to attend a segregated New Orleans kindergarten in 1959. It wasn’t until a year later, however, that a federal court mandated desegregation in the state of Louisiana.
To determine if African American pupils would be academically successful at the predominantly white school, the school district developed entrance exams. Six other pupils, including Ruby, also made the cut.
The decision to send her to the all-white William Frantz Elementary School, just a few blocks from their home, was a difficult one for her parents. Her mother wanted Ruby to enjoy the educational opportunities that she and her parents were denied, but her father was opposed out of concern for his daughter’s safety.
But the school district was slow to act, and she wasn’t allowed to enrol until November 14. Three of the students were sent to the predominantly white McDonough Elementary School, while the other two opted to stay put.
Every day that school year, four federal marshals walked Ruby and her mother to class. As she passed by, people jeered and hurled insults at her. She continued on nevertheless, and later explained that she was only scared when she spotted a woman carrying a black baby doll in a coffin.
Due to the pandemonium caused by irate white parents pulling their children from school, she spent her first day in the principal’s office. Children of ardent segregationists were permanently removed from the classroom.
All year long, Ruby had only one instructor, Barbara Henry, a white resident of Boston who was willing to have her in her class. Ruby never missed a day of school despite having to eat lunch alone and occasionally playing at recess with her instructor.
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Early Life Of Ruby Bridges
On September 8, 1954, Ruby Nell Bridges was born to her parents, Abon Bridges and Lucille Bridges. She was born in the Mississippi countryside, specifically in the town of Tylertown. It is a remarkable coincidence that Bridges was born in the same year that the decision in the Brown v.
Board of Education case mandated the desegregation of all public schools. Bridges was the eldest of five younger brothers and sisters. Her family had a modest farm in Mississippi, where they all shared living quarters and worked as sharecroppers.
When Bridges was four years old, her parents and siblings uprooted and relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana in the hope of finding better employment possibilities and a better life. The family had a difficult time making ends meet prior to the relocation.
Ruby Bridges’ parents were the kind of individuals that put in a lot of effort every day to ensure that they could provide for their growing family. Her mother held a number of different nighttime jobs, while her father, Abon, was employed as an attendant at a petrol station.
In 1959, when Bridges was just five years old, she enrolled in a kindergarten class at a predominantly black school that was located a few miles away from her family. Many schools in the South struggled to maintain their segregated status in the face of pressure from the federal government to do away with segregation.
That same year, kindergarten students all around the state of Louisiana were given standardised examinations to determine whether or not they were capable of succeeding in all-white schools.
Bridges was one of just six pupils who were successful in passing this test and earning the right to attend an all-white school the next academic year.
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Education Of Ruby Bridges
Parents Bridges were hesitant to enrol their daughter at an all-white institution due to concerns about the racism she might confront there. Ruby’s mother made the tough call to send her to a prestigious university, despite the fact that few of her ancestors had the opportunity to do so.
For her first year of elementary school, she chose William Frantz Elementary. Only three of the six children who had passed the performance exam ended up in McDonough Elementary School, while the other two remained at their all-Black schools.
Bridges had a terribly challenging first year in elementary school at William Frantz. However, because the schools were resisting the federal rule that required them to accept Black students, she had to wait until the following school year to begin.
Bridges remained a student at Johnson Lockett until the start of her freshman year on November 14, 1960, when she transferred to William Frantz. Four court marshals were assigned by President Eisenhower to accompany her to and from school each day.
Whenever Bridges, then six years old, arrived at her new school, a mob would gather outside the entrance and hurl insults and threats at the young girl. She recalled a woman who was visibly disturbed and intimidated by the gathering while clutching a little coffin with a Black baby doll.
The parents of white students came in and pulled them out of school, either for the day or permanently, on her first day.
Only one of the school’s instructors was willing to accept Bridges as a student. Barbara Henry, a first-year teacher from Boston, MA, befriended her. In Bridges’s first year of high school, she was the lone student because their were no white students in the class.
She stayed in one classroom with Mrs. Henry the entire school day, including through meals and breaks. The fact that Bridges went to a white school was met with bitter hostility by all of Bridges’ family members. Because of her father’s job loss, she and
the grandparents were forced to leave the sharecropping farm they had worked for years. The Bridges family was denied checkout privileges at the supermarket where they previously shopped.
It was a tough period for everyone, but Bridges, especially, had a really tough time dealing with the bullying and hostility he faced at school. Dr. Robert Coles, a child psychologist, was sent by the state to see Bridges and assist her cope with her problems.
Bridges kept going, and her second year of school was much more successful. As more and more children of colour enrolled in the school, the teachers and students gradually warmed up to her. Her father had recently landed a new job, and the neighbourhood had begun rallying behind them.
She finished up with elementary school and is now enrolled in Francis T. Nicholls High. After finishing high school at age 17, she enrolled in the Kansas City Business Institute. She was a travel agent for American Express.
