鲁比·布里奇斯——第一位进入白人小学的非裔美国儿童，1960年

To expand on the story: no teacher in Ruby's all-white school in Louisiana would teach her, except for[ Barbara Henry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Henry), a recent transplant from Boston. The white teachers in the school refused to educate her or even allow her in their classrooms for an entire year. Said Bridges of Henry later: >I had never seen a white teacher before, but Mrs. Henry was the nicest teacher I ever had. She tried very hard to keep my mind off what was going on outside. But I couldn't forget that there were no other kids. Incidentally, both women are still alive today. EDIT: there's a clip of the two together on Oprah in 1996. The link is [here!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwb5xsRO1yc)

Just read her Wikipedia article, and found this: "Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her, while another held up a black baby doll in a coffin; because of this, the U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, allowed Ruby to eat only the food that she brought from home." Real adults threatened to MURDER a six year old, EVERY day. I really hope these people are so embarrassed and ashamed.

It blows my mind that this happened when my father was only 5. Reminds me of something my history teacher in college said. He was an older man and said "I walked the world with slaves, meaning that when he was born, there were still really African Americans around who at one time were forced to work fields. I'll never forget that.

Even after all this time, it's still infuriating to be reminded that US Marshals were needed to protect a little girl just trying to go to school. To protect her from *adults* who were her neighbors in the same town.

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This happened less than 60 years ago. US Marshall's had to be called in because adults were protesting a little girl going to *their* school. The fucked part is, is that the people that were protesting went on to have kids that further their backward ass views.

Was super nice when the Federal government was supportive of this kind of thing.

Do we know anything of the Marshals who escorted her?

Norman Rockwell did a very great picture based, I think, on this episode:

I hope that by the time those US Marshall's retired that that was one of the proudest moments of their life protecting young Ruby Bridges. [Her photo from wiki.]()

My father-in-law was in the National Guard in the early 60's and was deployed to Oxford, MS when James Meredith enrolled at Ole' Miss. He's from Spokane Washington, and had never been in the American South before the deployment. He stayed on the perimeter, a grunt largely assigned to traffic duty. He was there about three weeks. The one thing he remembers - that the people of Oxford, the regular townsfolk - they were some of the nicest, most warm and hospitable people he's ever met. He was expecting the opposite and was genuinely surprised by what he found. Each and every day he was there he had white people apologize to him "for all the mess" and tell him the school should just let Meredith in and move on. In any protest or siege situation, there's the people at the center of the action and then there's everybody else just trying to get on with their lives. It's important to realize that when we see pictures like this, there's trouble in the crowd - but outside the perimeter there's the rest of us, just trying to get on with their day who actually have no negative concern for this little girl attending their school. There's a strong chance most in the town this little girl integrated were just fine with her doing it, no matter what Hollywood or some historians would have us believe. Those smiles on the officers inside the door belie this point. And then there's the corollary - that the few assholes dead set against such progress wield far too much power over the rest of us, back then and now as well.

Imagine what the comment section of a Facebook post featuring this would look like if desegregation happened today.

This photo makes me think that aside from being the first African-American to attend a white school. She was probably also the first African-American to receive their own secret service for protection.

Good lord, is that a personal security detail?

"Ruby Bridges" sounds a lot like a Civil War battle, which I suppose in some ways it was.

I can’t even begin to imagine how much hate that poor girl was surrounded with each and every day.

What a brave little girl. The shit she endured while paving the way is not fun to think about.

We've come a long way, but we have a long road ahead of us too. This was only a generation ago.

God love the little sweetheart - not a thing she should have gone through. Sad time in America. Evil mentality at that time.

She came to my elemtary school once to talk to us

Here is Obama meeting Ruby Bridges when he was president: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCsJ-24MdZc

I teach 3rd grade and have some Ruby Bridges biographies. One of my students was reading a book about her once and was sad that Ruby was in a classroom all by herself, so she drew little kids on post-its and stuck them on the empty desks so Ruby could have friends. My heart. 💕

Great picture! Whatever happened to arm bands? I always thought they looked cool (except for one segment of history), but they always looked like a nice add-on to a suit and tie

For some reason "colorized" seems equally appropriate and inappropriate