The federal court ordered public schools in New Orleans to desegregate, and November 14, 1960, would be the day that black children in New Orleans would attend school with white children. Six black kindergarten students were chosen to attend integrated public schools in September, and six-year-old Ruby Bridges was one of them.
Ruby Bridges was born in Mississippi in 1954, and at four years of age, her family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she was
selected to attend first grade at the William Frantz Public School in 1960. That day, Bridges and her mother were driven to William Frantz by federal marshals who would protect them when they stepped on campus. They got out of the car, and Bridges held to her mother’s hand as they followed the marshals through a shouting and fist- shaking crowd and up the school’s steps. The first day was not what Bridges expected. She sat in the principal’s office all day, unable to attend her first day of integrated class.
The marshals drove Bridges and her mother to the school the next day as well. They were greeted by a young, white woman inside the building who introduced herself as Mrs. Henry, Bridges first grade teacher.
Bridges then had to attend school without her mother because she had to work. Protected by the marshals, Bridges had to face the angry crowd by herself. She prayed for her safety and for the people insulting her that were unhappy with her presence; she prayed for God to forgive them because they were not aware of the wrong they were doing.
The crowd grew smaller as Bridges finished the first grade. There were no more marshals or protesters, but instead there were more black students during her second grade school year. William Frantz had become the integrated school where black students could attend and experience the same respect as their white classmates.
Bridges finished grade school at William Frantz, graduated from an integrated high school, and went to business school. She went on to form the Ruby Bridges Foundation in 1999, dedicated to “empowering children to advance social justice and racial harmony.”