Ruby+Bridges

By Jamilah Grade 5

Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954. She lived with her parents and grandparents in Tylertown, Mississippi. In 1958, Ruby and her family moved to New Orleans. Ruby went to Johnson Lockett Elementary School kindergarten. All of the kindergartners at that school had to take a test. Ruby and three other students passed. As a result, three students were sent to the all-white William Franz Elementary School.

On Ruby’s first day of school, there was an angry mob of white people. Because of that, the President ordered U.S. marshals to act as bodyguards for her. Because Ruby went to William Franz Elementary, the white people didn’t let their children go to that school. So Ruby went to school all by herself and was an A student.

One day, as Ruby was going to school, she faced an angry mob of white people and prayed for them. When she prayed she said, “Please, God, try to forgive those people, because even though they say those bad things they don’t know what they are doing. So You could forgive them just like You did when those people said bad things about You.”

Eventually, people began to realize that it didn’t matter what your skin color was, but what was inside you. In 1999 Ruby Bridges founded the Ruby Bridges Foundation of Education to promote and encourage the values of tolerance, respect and appreciation of all differences.