7. “Ruby Bridges” photograph shows historic moment for civil rights activism.
The little girl in this photo is Ruby Bridges, who was born in Tylertown, Mississippi on September 8, 1954 (coincidentally the same year that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment”). When she was two years old the Bridges family moved to New Orleans. It was there, on November 14, 1960, where Ruby became the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South.
Ruby’s attendance at the William Frantz School heightened the racial divide prevalent in a segregated society so much so, that for her protection, she had to be escorted to school by U.S. Marshalls. On Ruby’s first day a mob of protestors was gathered outside of the William Frantz School. Nearly all of the parents of the other children who attended the school had kept their children at home in protest to Ruby’s admission. As a result, no classes were to be held on her first day.
Ruby was escorted by the U.S. Marshalls to the principal’s office and spent the day there. More protests followed on Ruby’s second day. A woman threatened to poison Ruby and from then on Ruby was only allowed to eat food she brought with her from home. Another woman brought a coffin with a black doll inside. Only one of the teachers, at the William Frantz School, Barbara Henry, was willing to teach Ruby. For the rest of the school year, Ruby was Mrs. Henry’s only student as the protests continued. Mrs. Henry not only taught her but supported her through that difficult year.
The response by the school was not to renew Mrs. Henry’s contract when it ended at the completion of the school year. Thankfully, things took a turn for the better the following school year. Parents started sending their children back to the school. Ruby had classmates. The nightmare of the first year was behind her. Ruby went on to become a civil rights activist and established the Ruby Bridges Foundation in 1999 “to promote tolerance and create change through education.”