Moments in Black History

By Emily and Mairin

Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 and became one of the first African American female students to go to an all-white school in Louisiana. In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. the Board of Education that segregated schools (separate schools for black and white students) had to end. Southern states did not want black students going to white schools.

In 1960, a federal court ordered Louisiana to desegregate, and Ruby and her mother began walking to the school with four federal marshals every day that year. She had to walk past crowds of white people screaming names at her, but she was brave and never missed a day at school Ruby says she was only scared once when she saw a woman holding a black baby doll in a coffin!

Ruby spent her first day in the principal’s office, but then she started going to class with Barbara Henry, a white teacher from Boston who was the only teacher willing to accept Ruby as her student.  Because angry white parents pulled their children from school, Ruby was a class all alone. She ate lunch alone but sometimes played with her teacher at recess. Ruby Bridges was strong, brave, and smart.

Today she still inspires many young children by making the world a better place through her speeches. Ruby Bridges inspires people of all shapes and sizes. You can help make change like her. Join the fight to help give Africans Americans a fair and equal education.