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Forty years who brought incredible change in our country , forged in the crucible of the civil rights movement and the struggle to end segregation. Forty years that changed me .
I was born in Mississippi in 1954 , the eldest son of Abon and Lucille Bridges. That year the U.S. issued its landmark decision ordering the integration of public schools. Not that I knew anything about the school at the time. What I knew and loved was growing on the farm of my grandparents sharecropping.
Ruby Bridges Biography
It was a very difficult life , however. My parents heard there were better opportunities in the city . We moved to New Orleans , where my father found work as an employee of the service station , and my mother took night jobs to help support our growing family .As I got a little older, my job was to watch my younger brothers and sister , it was not too difficult. Except for the church and the long walk to school all - black where I went to kindergarten, our world is not extended beyond our block. But that was all about to change .
Under federal court order , public schools in New Orleans were finally forced to desegregate . I did a test in the spring of 1960 , along with other black children kindergarten in the city, to see who would go to an integrated school come September. That summer my parents found out that he had passed the test and had been selected to start first grade at William Frantz Public School.
My mother was everything to him . My father was not . " We 're asking for trouble ," he said . He thought that things would not change, and blacks and whites would not be treated as equals . Mama thought I would have the opportunity to get a better education if I went to the new school - and the opportunity for a good job in the future. My parents argued about it and prayed about it. Eventually my mother convinced my father that despite the risks , they had to take this step forward , not only for their own children , but for all black children.
A federal judge ruled that Monday, November 14, 1960 was the day the New Orleans black children would go to school with white children . There were six of us opted to integrate the public school system of the city. Two decided to stay in their old schools . The other three were assigned to McDonough . I go to William Frantz alone .
On the morning of November 14 federal marshals took my mother and me the five blocks of William Frantz . In the car on one of the men explained that when we arrived at the school two quarterbacks have walked before us a two behind , so it would be protected on both sides.
That reminded me what Mom taught us about God, who is always there to protect us. "Ruby Nell , " she said as we arrived at my new school , " Fear not . Nuisance may be some people out , but I will be with you . "
Indeed , people shouted and shook his fist when we got off the car, but for me it was nothing louder than Mardi Gras, holding my mother 's hand and followed the officers through the crowd, the steps in school.
We spent all day sitting in the principal's office . Through the window , I saw white parents pointing at us and shouting , and then by land to their children out of school . In the uproar that never came to my classroom .
The officers took my mother and me to school the next day. I tried not to pay attention to the crowd. Someone had a black doll in a coffin, and that scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us .
A young white woman greeted us inside the building. She smiled at me . " Good morning , Ruby Nell , " she said , like mom , except with what I later learned was a Boston accent . "Welcome , I'm your new teacher, Mrs. Henry. " She seemed fine, but I was not sure how he feels about her. I had never been taught by a white teacher before .
Mrs. Henry took my mother and me to his classroom on the second floor . All the reception was empty and she asked me to choose a seat. I caught one in front, and Mrs. Henry began to teach the letters of the alphabet.
The next morning , my mother told me I could not go to school with me . She had to work and take care of my brothers and sister. " The commissioners have good car you, Ruby Nell , " Mama assured me . "Remember, if you're scared , say your prayers. You can pray to God anytime and anywhere . He will always listen . "
That was how I began to pray on the way to school. Things people shouting did not seem to touch me. Prayer was my protection. After walking up the stairs past the angry crowd , however , I was glad to see Mrs. Henry. She gave me a hug, and she sat beside me instead of on the desktop of the great master in the front of the room . Day after day , it was only Mrs. Henry and I, working on my lessons.
Militant segregationist as news called them, took to the streets in protest, and riots erupted throughout the city . My parents protected me as best they could, but I knew that the problems had come to our family, because I went to the white school. My father was fired from his job . The white owners of a grocery store told us not to shop there anymore. Even my grandparents in Mississippi suffered . The owner of the land they had partnership for 25 years, said everyone knew her granddaughter was causing problems in New Orleans, and asked to be moved .
At the same time , there were some white families who braved the protests and keep their children in school. But they were not in my class, so do not viewed . People all over the country who had heard about me on the news sent letters and donations. A neighbor gave my father a job painting houses . Other people took care of us , watching our house to keep out troublemakers even walked behind the car marshal on my way to school. My family could not have done it without our friends and neighbors help.
And I could not have gotten through this year without Mrs. Henry. Sitting next to her in the classroom , just us two , I was able to forget the outside world. She scoffed at the school. We did everything together. I could not leave the schoolyard during recess , so right in that room and play games made for the year jumps to music.
I remember her explaining to me the integration and why some people were against it. " It's not easy for people to change once you have become accustomed to living a certain way," said Mrs. Henry. "Some of them do not know any better and are afraid . But not everyone is like that. "
Although it was only six years old, I knew what he meant. People who spent all morning as I walked down the stairs schools were full of hate. Were white , but so was my teacher, who could not have been more different from them. She was one of the most caring people I had ever known . The most important lesson I learned that year in Mrs. Henry 's class was the lesson of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tried to teach us all . Never judge people by the color of their skin. God makes each of us unique in ways that go much deeper. From her window , Mrs. Henry always saw me walking to school . One morning when I arrived at our classroom , she said she had been surprised to see me talking to the crowd. "I saw his lips move, " she said, "but I could not understand what he was saying to those people. "
I was not talking to them , "I said . " I was praying for them . "Usually , I prayed in the car on the way to school , but that day I had forgotten until I was in the crowd. Please be with me, who had asked God , and be with those people too . Forgive them not know what they are doing.
"Ruby Nell , you are really someone special," whispered Mrs. Henry, and gives me an even bigger hug than normal . She had that look on her face as my mother would come when I 'd done something to make you feel proud.
Another person who helped me was Dr. Robert Coles , a child psychiatrist who happened to see me being escorted through the crowd outside my school. Dr. Coles offered to work with me through this ordeal. Soon he was coming to our house every week to talk to me about how I was in school.
Really, I was doing well . Whenever I was with people who wanted the best for me : my family, friends and school , my teacher . The more time I spent with Mrs. Henry , the more I came to love it. I wanted to be like her. Soon, without realizing it, he had collected his Boston accent .
Neither missed a single day of school that year. The crowd was reduced to only a few protesters, and before I knew it, it was June . For me, the first grade ended much quieter started . I said goodbye to Mrs. Henry , hoping she was my teacher back in the fall. But when I returned to school in September, everything was different. There were no marshals , no protesters . There were other children - even some other black students - in my second grade class . And Mrs. Henry was gone. I was devastated . Years later I learned that he had not been invited to return to William Frantz, and she and her husband had moved back to Boston. It was almost like that first year of school integration had never happened . Nobody talked about it . Everyone seemed to have put this difficult time behind them.
After a while , I did the same . I finished elementary school at William Frantz and graduated from an integrated high school, went to business school and studied travel and tourism. For 15 years I worked as a travel agent . Eventually I got married and I jumped at raising four children in the town I grew up in.
I did not give much importance to the events of my childhood until my younger brother died in 1993. For a while I looked after his daughters. They became students at William Frantz , and the day I took there every morning , I was literally walking in my past, in the same school that would help you integrate years earlier.
I started volunteering three days a week at William Frantz , working as a liaison between parents and school. However , I felt that God had brought me back in touch with my past of something beyond that. I struggled with it for a while . Finally , I knelt down and prayed , Lord , what do I have to do , I 'll have to show me.
Not long after that, a reporter called the school. The psychiatrist Robert Coles had written a children's book , the story of Ruby Bridges, now everyone wanted to know what had happened to the girl in the painting by Norman Rockwell ( View Photo Gallery ) who had appeared in Look magazine . Nobody was expecting again William Frantz . Dr. Coles had often written about me , but this was the first book is for children . For me it was my way of keeping history alive God until I was able to tell him myself.
One of the best parts of the story is that finally I met my favorite teacher , Barbara Henry. She has come to me through the book publisher Dr. Coles, and in 1995 we met in person for the first time in more than three decades. The second I laid eyes on me, she cried , "Ruby Nell " Nobody had called me that since I was a child. Then we hugged each other as we used to do every morning in first grade.
I did not realize how much I had picked up from Mrs. Henry ( I still have a hard time calling it something else) - not only his Boston accent , but his mannerism also, for example , how she leans her head and makes gestures hands when he speaks. She showed me a small photo, dog -eared me with my missing front teeth she had kept all these years. "I used to look at that picture and wonder how you were ," he said . " I told my children about how often they were like part of my family . "
We have stayed in a part of each other's lives ever since. It turns out that what I've been on the front lines of the battle for school integration , people recognize my name and are eager to hear what I have to say about racism and education today . I speak to groups around the country, and when I visit schools , Mrs. Henry often comes with me. We tell our children about history and the lessons of the past and how we can still learn from them today - especially that each child is a unique human being is made by God.
I tell you another important thing I learned in first grade is that schools can be a place to bring people together - children of all races and backgrounds. That's the job I focus now , connecting our children through their schools. It's my way of following what God set in motion 40 years ago when he led me up the steps of William Frantz Public School and a new world with my teacher, Mrs. Henry - a world under his protection has reached more beyond the two of us in that classroom .
~ Ruby Bridges
As published in Guideposts
March 2000
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Published: 2013-12-03T00:06:00-08:00
Ruby Bridges Biography
Publish Ruby Bridges Biography di Bio Street, updated at: 12:06 AM. URL http://abalabalnyoba.blogspot.com/2013/12/ruby-bridges-biography.html. Redaction Michele Brown
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