Walking Into History

It was a warm November day in New Orleans and six-year-old Ruby Nell was starting first grade at a new school.  Her father was very concerned about the change to this school, but her mother felt more confident, yet anxious.  Ruby's first day was not only momentous for her, but for her country. 

Ruby was the first black child to attend a white school in New Orleans. She became the symbol of integration in 1960. 

Fifty years later, Ruby Nell Bridges recalled those first months at William Frantz Elementary School.  This week she was a guest on National Public Radio's program "Tell Me More."  She shared her memories of walking up to school with her parents and several US Marshalls amidst a huge crowd of white people screaming and shaking their fists at this little girl.  "I thought it was like Mardi Gras with all the hooting and hollering," Ruby stated. "I really did not have any idea why all those people were outside the school."
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/01/131727013/Wisdom-From-A-Trailblazer-Ruby-Bridges-Talks-Racism-In-Education

Ruby's parents deliberately did not mention the crowds or their purpose to their young girl because they thought she would be upset that the hateful protest was focused on her.  In a striking contrast, Ruby was warmly met by her white teacher, Mrs. Henry.  Mrs. Henry allowed Ruby to pick any seat in the room and she chose one in the front row.  Once Ruby was settled in, she could hear the sound of doors opening and closing and people shuffling up and down the hallways.  White parents were taking their children out of school because of what this little girl represented to them.  For the rest of that school year, Ruby and Mrs. Henry were the only two people in the first grade at William Frantz Elementary. In fact, the school had very, very few students attending classes in the other grades. 

Norman Rockwell's 1963 painting
"The Problem We All Live With."



One of the images that has stayed with Ruby, and which caused her to have some sleepless nights, was a box that the protesters placed on the sidewalk outside her school every morning and afternoon.  It was a child-size coffin containing a black baby doll. Fortunately Ruby also had some pleasant memories from her first grade year, many of which were with Mrs. Henry, who taught her pupil with the same enthusiasm she would have had for a full class of students. 

Ruby is no stranger to feeling battered by seemingly unbeatable odds. She continues to live in New Orleans and was among the thousands of people who had homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The strain of her attendance at the integrated elementary school 50 years ago eventually put such stress on her parents marriage that the couple separated when she was in sixth grade. Ruby noted that her parents did not discuss the role integration played in their eventual divorce, but the damage was already done.



Ruby Nell Bridges, 2010

This month Ruby, along with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and his wife Cheryl, are co-sponsoring the First Annual New Orleans Children's Book Festival.  "I've participated in so many book festivals across the country. And I thought, well, you know, we here in New Orleans have a festival for everything you can imagine, but we had not had a festival for kids to celebrate reading and literacy. And so it was something that I really wanted to do, and I thought this was a great opportunity to try and commemorate and celebrate the 50th anniversary," Ruby explained on the radio show. The festival is part of a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Ruby's historic walk into elementary school.  When asked about her opinion of integration, Ruby replied, "I believe integration has intrinsic value." 

1960 school integration protesters



Integration. I am so distracted with wrapping my thoughts around sending my six-year-old child past an angry mob of adults who are carrying hateful signs and making vicious gestures that I need to address that first.  Ruby did not yet understand her own bravery.  Her parents understood. They were all too aware of the risks and weighed them against their feelings about equality and who has the right to a good education. Their bravery knocks me back on my heels 50 years later. Hate is fear that has no bottom. I think integration is one way to equal the education playing field and I feel it became an answer partially due to how the school tax base is structured.  Instead of moving money, move the children.  I believe leveling the funding playing field is a more substantive way to go so all schools have more balanced resources to be safe, clean, up-to-date places of learning.  That is a bit of a pipe dream as long as the design of school districts and the taxes they receive are the geographic equivalent of walled cities.  Everything stays in and nothing gets out.   

In the NPR interview, Ruby said she supports initiatives that give all children the same access to the same education.  Her concern was the all too familiar scenario where children in poor areas face lacking opportunity while those in more affluent areas having an abundance.  "There are two kinds of parallel dialogues going on. One is that, you know, the whole reason that people wanted integrated schools was not just because they wanted to go to school with people of different races, but because of - they wanted to end the political invisibility that came with segregation. They wanted access to the same schools, the same textbooks, good facilities as the white kids had, and integration was seen as the way to achieve it."

She continued, "Now there are some people who are saying, you know what? Forget all that. We put all this effort into access and integration and so forth. The real issue is: What are kids learning? And it doesn't matter if they learn in all-black or Latino or all-white schools. It matters that they are learning. What you have to say about that?"

"Tell Me More" host Michel Martin ends each interview asking her guests for any wisdom they have to share.  Ruby Nell Bridges waxed eloquently, "I always say the lesson that I took away is the same lesson Dr. King tried to teach us before he was taken away from us: you absolutely cannot judge a person by the color of their skin. You have to allow yourself an opportunity to get to know them. And racism is something that we, as adults, have kept alive. We pass it on to our kids. None of our kids come into the world knowing anything about disliking one another. And that's the wisdom that I took away from that experience, and that is the wisdom that I pass on to kids across the country."

Through My Eyes is the title of Ruby Bridges book about her experience 50 years ago. Her website is:   http://www.rubybridges.com/home.htm