Ruby
Bridges
In his painting, Norman Rockwell painted a young black girl. Her name was Ruby Bridges.
Ruby Bridges was born in Mississippi in 1954. When she was two years old, her family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1960, Ruby's parents received a call from some representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They wanted to know if Ruby's parents were interested in allowing Ruby to participate in the integration of the New Orleans School System. Ruby was chosen by a judge because of her intelligence. Her parents, Abon and Lucielle Bridges, after some thought decided it was their responsibility to better thier daughter's life. Their decision changed their lives and Ruby's forever.
When she was six years old, Ruby became the first black child admitted into the William Frantz Elementary School. Protected by armed federal marshals, she walked through a crowd of angry white adults. They screamed and yelled nasty things at her. One lady threatened to poison Ruby, so for a period of time Ruby would only eat packaged foods. Ruby did not understand the essence of the commotion; she just knew that white people were sayings mean things about her.
One day when Ruby walked through the mob, she stopped and silently moved her lips. When her teacher asked her what she had been doing, Ruby said that she had prayed. In her prayer, Ruby prayed:
"Please God, try to forgive those people.
Because even if they say those bad things,
they don't know what they're doing.
So you can forgive them,
just like you did those folks a long time ago
when they said terrible things about you."
For the entire first year of her schooling at the white school, the parents of the other students who attended school boycotted and would not allow their children to attend school with Ruby. During that time, Ruby was taught alone by her teacher, Mrs. Hurrley. After a month, some of the white students returned to school. Finally, though, all the parents of white students became tired of having their children at home all the time and sent them back to school.
Ruby became a national symbol because of her pride and courage at such a young age. In his painting The Problem We All Live With, Norman Rockwell painted her famous walk to school.
A child psychologist named Robert Coles was so interested in Ruby that he wanted to see how she reacted to this environment of people yelling at her everyday went she went to school. When he met with Ruby, he asked her to draw some pictures of white and black people. Even though she drew the white people looking just fine and happy, the black people that she drew were missing things. Also, Ruby believed that Jesus looked more white than black. Ruby not only served as an inspiration for one of Coles' books entitled Children of Crisis, but he also wrote a picture book about Ruby called The Story of Ruby Bridges.
Today Ruby is a successful businesswoman, married with four sons.
To read
a very intriguing interview
with Ruby Bridges all
grown-up, click here
To see pictures from the movie that was made about Ruby, click here
Here's Ruby as an adult
