News
Civil rights hero visits Mohonasen High School
May 20, 2010
In
1960, a six-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges made history when she
became one of the first African-Americans to integrate a southern
school. On her first day in her new school she was shouted at and
spit at. People yelled death threats and racial slurs. People took
their white children out of the school.
For an entire year, Ruby Bridges was the only student in her class. She wasn’t allowed to see the other students in the school, eat lunch with them, play with them on the playground. Her teacher – Mrs. Henry – had come from Boston just to teach her.
“I’d never seen a white teacher before. I didn’t know what to expect from her. She was the nicest teacher I ever had,” Bridges said during an assembly at Mohonasen High School today. “The most important lesson she taught me was that even though she looked like those people outside, she wasn’t like them.”
Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 in Tylertown, Mississippi. A year later, her family moved to New Orleans. A book about Ruby entitled “The Story of Ruby Bridges,” was published in 1995. There was also footage of Ruby entering what had previously been an all-white school in the television series, “Eyes on the Prize.” Ruby was also the subject of the Norman Rockwell painting entitled “The Problem We All Live With.”
Since 1995, Bridges has traveled the country speaking about her experiences and talking about how they have shaped her life. She reminded students that they all come into the world with a clean start.
“What we really need to be concerned about is good and evil,” she said, “because there is a lot of that out in the world – far more than there was when I was in school.”
Bridges’ role in American history began to take shape when her parents agreed that she would be one of six six-year-old girls set to integrate elementary schools in New Orleans. Bridges and two other African-American girls were slated to attend William Frantz Elementary School – but on the day before, she and her parents were informed that Ruby would be going by herself after the two other families had decided not to send their children. The next morning, four US Marshals showed up on her doorstep ready to escort her to her first day of first grade.
During her visit to Mohonasen, Bridges talked about other stories that came out of the Civil Rights Movement. When we learn about this chapter of our history, we all learn about Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. But, she said, there were so many others who played an integral role in the movement – so many who lost their lives fighting for what they believed to be right.
She talked about visiting the Civil Rights
Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. One of the exhibits, she said, shows
a badly burned bus that had been used by the Freedom Riders.
Pictures of the bus showed its riders to be white and black.
“I knew then that it was not about one race against another. It never was,” Bridges said. “It was about what was right and what was wrong, and some people recognized that and they fought for it, died for it.”
Bridges asked the students what they would do if all of a sudden there was a law stating that people who look different from one another can no longer go to school together.
“Protest.” “Boycott.” “Break the Law,” students said.
As students answered her question, she offered each one a round of applause.
“I want you to understand that if anything ever happens to you, it’s not going to matter what that person looks like who comes along to help you,” Bridges said. “I want you to remember the story of Ruby Bridges and what it means.”
Ruby Bridges’ visit to Mohonasen was made possible by a grant from the Mohonasen Foundation for Excellence. The high school and middle school Peers for Peace, along with school social worker Diane Blinn and teacher Nick Coupas, also played an integral role.
