On November 14, Ruby Bridges was six years old, three months younger than the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education. Six years old.
She had attended a segregated kindergarten in New Orleans. The district gave Black children a test to see if they would be allowed to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School. Six passed. Two decided not to go through with it. The three other girls were sent to a different all-white school; Ruby Bridges would be the only Black student desegregating William Frantz.
Her father was not sure he wanted to put her through that. Her mother argued it had to be done for her daughter and "for all African-American children."
This was three years after the Little Rock Nine were escorted into school by the National Guard. Conditions in the South had not improved. A crowd came out to hurl insults and threaten a six year old child.
"What really protected me is the innocence of a child," Bridges said at an event last Thursday. "Because even though you all saw that and I saw what you saw, my 6-year-old mind didn't tell me that I needed to be afraid. Like why would I be afraid of a crowd? I see that all the time."
But it is still shocking to see pictures of the protests. They made a picture of a coffin, with a Black baby in it, and paraded it around the school. Along with a cross. Bridges was the only child in her class-- white parents pulled their children out, and many teachers refused to teach. The boycott was eventually broken by a Methodist minister, but Bridges still was shunned, her father fired, her family barred from some local businesses.
It's Ruby Bridges portrayed in the Norman Rockwell painting "The Problem We All Live With." one of his first works after he left The Saturday Evening Post. It earned him sackfulls of angry mail, calling him, among other things, a "race traitor."
This week, many schools celebrated a Ruby Bridges Walk To School Day in schools all around the country.
There is a common narrative, that in the sixties we pretty much settled all the racial issues in this country and that demands for equity ever since have just been a political ploy to grab undeserved goodies. "We fixed that stuff," the argument goes, "so we shouldn't need to be talking about it now. You sure you don't have some other reason for bringing it up?" It's the narrative that brings us to a President-elect who claims that since we fixed racism in the sixties, it's white folks who have been the victims, and who need reparations.
But here's what I want to underline-- Ruby Bridges is alive. Not even old lady alive, but just 70. Presumably most of the children gathered around that coffin and cross are also alive, probably a few of those adults as well (Bridges's mother died in 2020).
This is not some episode from the distant past. It's not about some form of schooling that belongs to some dead-and-gone generation. The anniversary is a reminder to do better, to be better, a reminder that it really wasn't very long ago that a whole lot of people thought it was okay to threaten a six year old child with abuse and violence. White folks don't need to hang their heads in shame and embarrassment, but neither should they say, "That was people from another time, long ago and far away," as a way to feel better about the whole business. It can happen here. It just happened here. Pay attention and do the work to make sure it isn't happening tomorrow.
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