Ruby Bridges Thesis

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Ruby Bridges was born September 8, 1954, in Mississipi, when Ruby was 4 years old, her family moved to New Orleans. Ruby took a test to determine whether or not she would be able to attend an all-white school. Ruby had the problem with traveling several miles away to get to an all-black school when she lived only a couple blocks away from an all-white school. The test that colored children took was said to be made to be difficult so that colored children couldn't pass it as easily. Ruby passed the test and was now allowed to attend a white-school.
Ruby attended the white school called William Frantz School, where she was the only black child and the first colored child to attend a segregated school in the south. When Ruby first went to school, …show more content…

When Ruby arrived, she was protected by federal marshals who guided her into school. The only teacher who agreed to teach Ruby was Barbara Henry, who had just moved from Boston. Ruby was the only student in her class since all the students were pulled from that class and relocated to a different school, just so that they wouldn't be with Ruby. Mrs. Henry and Ruby sat together every day and studied. Throughout the school year, Ruby was threatened multiple times, but she paid no mind to them and walked to class, and then …show more content…

She continued to support anti-racism and in 1999, she created The Ruby Bridges Foundation with the motto, "Racism is a grown-up disease, and we must stop using our children to spread it." The goal of this organization was to advocate tolerance and create change through education.
Ruby wanted to share her experience, in 1999, she wrote a book called, Through My Eyes, where she explained how she spent her days and how the experience made her feel. The book was awarded the Jane Addams Children's Book Awards for Book for Older Children.
In honor of her courageousness, painter Norman Rockwell painted a picture of a little black girl walking with 4 federal marshals in 1964. It was when Ruby saw this painting that she realized that what she did when she was 6 was important. Ruby was pushed further into the world of Civil Activism when her brother Malcolm Bridges was killed in what looked like a drug-related shooting, she took in his children, who at the time, coincidently, went to William Frantz School. She became a volunteer at the school, which had become an interracial

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