63 years ago today, 14 November 1960, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Many, including white moderates, believed that she was “out of order.”
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Imagine having to go through that wall of ignorance, as a small child just trying to get an education. So unequivocally on the right side of history. Mind blowing that this is so recent.
Ruby Bridges has an Instagram. Remember that this was not that long ago.
Just a baby. How can you feel hate for a little child?
Odd phrasing. I’m sure it wasn’t her idea for her to be the first black child in an all white school.
Imagine feeling that threatened by a tiny little schoolgirl.
And all the people screaming at her….
I’ve always loved this picture. She is just the absolute cutest in her little dress. But almost all these men have a smile to some degree.
This is your grandparents generation make no mistake.
This isn’t even pre WW2 stuff. No, this is 1960. The same people that spit on little girls are still alive and verbally spewing today.
I just imagine her momma helping her get ready that morning. I bet she was nervous
*Only* 63 years ago.
I’m glad this photo is being circulated in color much more; they try and distance these atrocities by having them in b&w to make it seem like some bygone era; my mother is a year older than Ruby. Both her and my grandmother are still alive – she still has the scar from a gash in her forehead for having the audacity to walk my mother to school so she wouldn’t be harassed.
John Steinbeck witnessed this firsthand and wrote about it in *Travels with Charley.* He gives a searing description of the women he called “the cheerleaders,” who howled at little Ruby and screamed filthy words like a horde of banshees.
The older I get the more I’m amazed not only if Ruby’s bravery but that if her parents’. Someone absolutely needed to send their child in to desegregate a school but imagine being the parent who had to do it?
God damn. She was just a baby.
I grew up reading about Ruby Bridges so I was familiar with her story. Now that I’m a parent, this photo really hit me in a weird way.
She is the subject of one of my favorite paintings
*The Problem We All Live With* by Norman Rockwell
https://preview.redd.it/c51pflatvc0c1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=133dc5a04c2ab871139a34aaaaf05e2f8c58fcd6
Wild to think a lot of people in power today were roughly in their teens and 20s at that time in history and a fair proportion of them were openly or discretely not in favor of this integration.
As a minority, I think I owe a lot to bravery of Black people.
Her tiny book bag though 🥺
People lost their damn minds in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes when schools were desegregated. Probably the worst was Judge Leander Perez of Plaqumines Parish. He organized the Citizens Council of Greater New Orleans to stop desegregation. He spoke out against the enrollment of black children in public schools, and his calls for resistance to desegregation led to violence, leading to a mob assault on the school administration building. The mob then had to be fought off using fire hoses, and the mob then went on a rampage and attacked any black people they found on the streets. That was in 1960.
Then in Plaquimines, he defunded the public schools and set up private schools, whites only of course, and arranged for poor white children to attend with no charge. You know, that kind of reminds of of the voucher system, where poor kids can leave public schools and attend private schools. Oh, and he and his people threatened white families who sent their kids to desegregated schools. Plaqumines parish did not officially desegregate schools until 1967.
Perez was also part of the legal team fighting to stop the school integration
“*Get over slavery and racism, that was 200 years ago*”. Absolutely not. My dad that is 67 was 4 years old when this happened. JUST ONE GENERATION AGO
I always feel two ways about this pic. Ruby Bridges was really courageous at a young age, but shame on us for making her or any child go through this.
Every time I see these pictures, I think, “She’s such a little bitty thing! Who could be mean to her? Her parents must have been sick with worry.” This was a monumental step for civil rights that seems just way too big for that little babe in a hair bow and ankle socks. But there she was.
Cannot fathom how much concern Ruby’s parents must have had each morning as they kissed her goodbye for school
This photo just makes me angry. Imagine the bullying and harassment that girl got. Half from adults themselves. Disgusting.
You can’t be “moderate” about civil rights. You’re for or against.
She came and talked to my school when I was a kid. I was shocked that she was about the same age as my mom. Really put things into perspective how not that long ago it was.
It’s sad I even have to say how brave she was because no child should ever have to be brave to go get an education. Also her little outfit is precious 🥹