Rugiatu Bangura
February 24, 2012
English
Mr.William
Ruby Bridges fight for equality!
In Spring 1960, Ruby Bridges was one of several African-Americans in New Orleans to take a test to determine which children would be the first to attend integrated schools. The court-ordered first day of integrated schools in New Orleans, November 14, 1960, was commemorated by Norman Rockwell in the painting The Problem We All Live With. Six students were chosen , two students decided to stay at their old school, three were transferred to McDonough. Ruby was the only one assigned to William Frantz. Her father initially was reluctant, her mother on the other hand felt strongly that the move was needed not only to give her own daughter a better education, but to take this step forward , for all African-American children.
On The first day, all the parents had rushed into the building taken their kids out -- effectively boycotting the school. The school didn't know what to do Ruby was told to just sit in the principal's office until it was time to go home.Bridges told AOL news, I remember thinking, 'This school is easy". I guessing being at that age she didn’t really know what was going on ,but that a lot people took there kids out of school that day.Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her.It wasn’t until the second day of school until Bridges really started school being the only person in class Bridges was taught by Barbara Henry from Boston Massachusetts.
U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, only allowed Ruby to eat food that she brought from home.Another woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges has said "scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us." At her mother's suggestion, Bridges began to pray on the way to school, which she found provided protection from the comments yelled at her on the daily walks.Bridges later started working with Robert Coles a child psychiatry who volunteered to provide counseling to Bridges during her first year at Frantz.Bridges and Coles met weekly in the Bridges home. Robert Coles later wrote a children's book, “The Story of Ruby Bridges”, to acquaint other children with Bridges' story.
The Bridges family suffered for their decision to send her to William Frantz Elementary: her father lost his job, and her grandparents, who were sharecropper in Mississippi, were kicked off their land. She has noted that many others in the community both black and white showed support in a variety of ways. Some white families continued to send their children to Frantz despite the protests, a neighbor provided her father with a new job, and local people babysat, watched the house as protectors, and walked behind the federal marshals' car on the trips to school.Near the end of the year Bridges and Mrs.Henry started to notice children began coming back to school.Even though these children were white, she still knew nothing about racism or integration.
When Bridges started school in September she expected things to be the same as they were last year.She began second grade with no marshals driving her to school every day,no protectors outside the school,and she wasn’t the only one in the school.When she walked in to class that day she saw at least twenty other kids and a few was even black.Mrs.Henry later on that summer moved back to Boston and was expecting her first child in the fall.Ruby lost her best friend and teacher,she felt different from all the other kids in her school.William Frantz School was integrated but the long, strange journey had changed Bridges forever.
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