Living in the USA in the 1960s as a black American was not easy. Schools were integrated, times were racist and white supermacist groups such as the KKK were in full swing.
But in November 1960, six year old Ruby Bridges would be the one to integrate schools in the South for the very first time, impacting the civil rights movement for ever.
Despite the state banning school segregation in 1954, Southern schools still resisted integration, particularly in states such as Louisiana, where the Bridges family lived. In 1959, Ruby, along with five other black students, passed the entrance exam for an all white elementary school.
Due to the horrific racism often seen in the South, two of the five students decided not to attend the school at all, for fear of their safety. This was not uncommon, with a lot of African American parents scared to send their children to previously integrated schools where there was a lot of racism.
Every single morning, Ruby Bridges along with her mother Lucille, was escorted to school while white families shouted racist slurs at her and tried to prevent her from entering the site. But she never missed one day of school that year.
In 2010, the presidant of the USA, Obama, invited Ruby Bridges to the White House to meet with him. In his office, hung the Norman Rockwell painting portraying Ruby Bridges being escorted to school. Obama hung the painting as a symbol of the civil rights movement and to remember the struggles African Americans faced and still continue to face.
Lucille Bridges fought for her daughter to remain at school, even when shops in her area refused to sell to her, and braved death threats to accompany her daughter to school everyday.
On November 10th, 2020, she unfortunately passed away, with her daughter Ruby commerating her with an Instagram post. The caption said, "today our country lost a hero".
