Gaelle Medidor
Civil Rights Activist
February 22, 2017 Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges is famous for doing something most of us take for granted today: going to elementary school. But that simple act by one small girl played an important part in the Civil Rights Movement. Ruby Nell Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, and grew up on the farm her parents and grandparents sharecropped in Mississippi. When she was 4 years old, her parents, Abon and Lucille Bridges, moved to New Orleans, hoping for a better life in a bigger city.The fact that Ruby Bridges was born the same year that the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision desegregated the …show more content…
For a full year, Henry and Ruby sat side by side at two desks, working on Ruby's lessons. Henry was very loving and supportive of Ruby, helping her not only with her studies but also with the difficult experience of being ostracized. During the first few weeks at Frantz School, Ruby was confronted with blatant racism in full view of her federal escorts. On her second day of school, a woman threatened to poison her. After this, the federal marshals allowed her to only eat food from home. On another day, she was "greeted" by a woman displaying a black doll in a wooden coffin. Ruby's mother kept encouraging her to be strong and pray while entering the school, which Ruby discovered reduced the intensity of the insults yelled at her and gave her courage. She spent her entire day, every day, in Mrs. Henry's classroom, not allowed to go to the cafeteria or out to recess to be with other students in the school. When she had to go to the restroom, the federal marshals walked her down the hall. After winter break, Ruby began to show signs of stress. She experienced nightmares and would wake …show more content…
By her own memory many years later, Ruby was not that aware of the extent of the racism that erupted over her attending the school. But when another child rejected Ruby's friendship because of her race, she began to slowly understand. By Ruby's second year at Frantz School it seemed everything had changed. Mrs. Henry's contract wasn't renewed, and so she and her husband returned to Boston. There were also no more federal marshals; Ruby walked to school every day by herself. There were other students in her second grade class, and the school began to see full enrollment again. No one talked about the past year. It seemed everyone wanted to put the experience behind them. Ruby Bridges finished grade school, and graduated from the integrated Francis T. Nicholls High School in New Orleans. She then studied travel and tourism at the Kansas City business school and worked for American Express as a world travel agent. In 1984, Ruby married Malcolm Hall in New Orleans, and later became a full-time parent to their four sons. What Ruby did so bravely helped paved the way for other African Americans, making it easier for other blacks to go to white schools, get a better education and help improve relations between blacks
Civil Rights Activist
February 22, 2017 Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges is famous for doing something most of us take for granted today: going to elementary school. But that simple act by one small girl played an important part in the Civil Rights Movement. Ruby Nell Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, and grew up on the farm her parents and grandparents sharecropped in Mississippi. When she was 4 years old, her parents, Abon and Lucille Bridges, moved to New Orleans, hoping for a better life in a bigger city.The fact that Ruby Bridges was born the same year that the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision desegregated the …show more content…
For a full year, Henry and Ruby sat side by side at two desks, working on Ruby's lessons. Henry was very loving and supportive of Ruby, helping her not only with her studies but also with the difficult experience of being ostracized. During the first few weeks at Frantz School, Ruby was confronted with blatant racism in full view of her federal escorts. On her second day of school, a woman threatened to poison her. After this, the federal marshals allowed her to only eat food from home. On another day, she was "greeted" by a woman displaying a black doll in a wooden coffin. Ruby's mother kept encouraging her to be strong and pray while entering the school, which Ruby discovered reduced the intensity of the insults yelled at her and gave her courage. She spent her entire day, every day, in Mrs. Henry's classroom, not allowed to go to the cafeteria or out to recess to be with other students in the school. When she had to go to the restroom, the federal marshals walked her down the hall. After winter break, Ruby began to show signs of stress. She experienced nightmares and would wake …show more content…
By her own memory many years later, Ruby was not that aware of the extent of the racism that erupted over her attending the school. But when another child rejected Ruby's friendship because of her race, she began to slowly understand. By Ruby's second year at Frantz School it seemed everything had changed. Mrs. Henry's contract wasn't renewed, and so she and her husband returned to Boston. There were also no more federal marshals; Ruby walked to school every day by herself. There were other students in her second grade class, and the school began to see full enrollment again. No one talked about the past year. It seemed everyone wanted to put the experience behind them. Ruby Bridges finished grade school, and graduated from the integrated Francis T. Nicholls High School in New Orleans. She then studied travel and tourism at the Kansas City business school and worked for American Express as a world travel agent. In 1984, Ruby married Malcolm Hall in New Orleans, and later became a full-time parent to their four sons. What Ruby did so bravely helped paved the way for other African Americans, making it easier for other blacks to go to white schools, get a better education and help improve relations between blacks