Ruby Bridges

RUBY BRIDGES

The Problem we All Live With
By Norman Rockwell

Segregation has always been a big part of U.S. history. Many large cities and towns were widely segregated for most of the 20th century. Whites and blacks weren't allowed to eat, work, go to school, or even use the bathroom at the same places. With the help of the NCAAP, in 1960, 6 black students were chosen to attend white schools and make them the first integrated schools of New Orleans. On November 14, 1960 Ruby and 3 others started their first days at school. Unfortunately, Ruby had to attend William Frantz Elementary all by herself while the other black students got to go to school together. On her way to school the first day, she was called inappropriate names and threatened multiple times. When she finally arrived at school, she was treated even worse than her walk their. Parents started pulling their kids out of the school and teachers refused to teach while she was in the school. Reluctantly, one teacher, Barbara Henry, decided she would teach Ruby. For the entire year, Ruby was her only student. On her second day of school, she was treated even worse. A woman came to the school, put a black baby doll into a coffin and threatened to poison her. From then on, FDR dispatched US Marshalls to walk Ruby to and from school and to only eat foods that she brought from home. Ruby continued her year at William Frantz and recieved counseling from child psychiatrist Robert Coles. The transition was hard on her entire family, her father lost his job, the grocery store they went to refused to sell them anything and her grandparents were turned away  from their sharecropping land. But Ruby had support from members of the community who watched over her and the house and even gave her father a job