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Born on September 8, 1954, Bridges was the oldest of five children for Lucille and Abon Bridges, farmers in Tylertown, Mississippi. When Ruby was two years old, her parents moved their family to New Orleans, Louisiana in search of better work opportunities.
- Early Life
- School Desegregation
- Integrating William Frantz Elementary
- Continuing Challenges
- Adult Years
- Speaking Engagements
- Additional References
Ruby Nell Bridges was born on Sept. 8, 1954 in a cabin in Tylertown, Mississippi. Her mother, Lucille Bridges, was the daughter of sharecroppers and had little education because she worked in the fields. Sharecropping, a system of agriculture instituted in the American South during the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War, perpetuated racia...
In 1954, just four months before Bridges was born, the Supreme Court ruled that legally mandated segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment, making it unconstitutional. But the landmark Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, didn’t lead to immediate change. Schools in the mostly Southern states where segregation was enforced by...
On that November morning in 1960, Bridges was the only Black child assigned to the William Frantz Elementary School. The first day, a crowd shouting angrily surrounded the school. Bridges and her mother entered the building with the help of four federal marshals and spent the day sitting in the principal’s office. By the second day, all the White f...
Bridges' entire family faced reprisals because of her integration efforts. Her father was fired after White patrons of the gas station where he worked threatened to take their business elsewhere. Abon Bridges would mostly remain jobless for five years. In addition to his struggles, Bridges' paternal grandparents were forced off their farm. Bridges'...
Bridges graduated from an integrated high school and went to work as a travel agent. She married Malcolm Hall, and the couple had four sons. When her youngest brother was killed in a 1993 shooting, Bridges took care of his four girls as well. By that time, the neighborhood around William Frantz Elementary had become populated by mostly Black reside...
Bridges has not sat quietly in the years since her famed walk to integrate the New Orleans school. She currently has her own website and speaks at schools and various events. For example, Bridges spoke at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in early 2020 during Martin Luther King Jr.week. She also spoke at a school district in Houston in 2018, where...
"Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges Speaks to Spring ISD Students About Racism, Tolerance and Change." springisd.org.“Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges To Speak During MLK Week.” 104-1 The Blaze, 15 Jan. 2020.“President Obama Meets Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges.” National Archives and Records Administration, 15 July 2011.“Ruby Bridges: Civil Rights Icon, Activist, Author, Speaker.” rubybridges.com.Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African American child to attend formerly whites -only William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on November 14, 1960. [1] [2] [3] She is the subject of a 1964 painting, The Problem We ...
Apr 2, 2014 · Birth date: September 8, 1954 Birth State: Mississippi Birth City: Tylertown
Nov 11, 2020 · Lucille Bridges, Ruby's mother, died Tuesday at the age of 86. Uncredited/AP. Lucille Bridges, who in 1960 braved a gauntlet of threats and racist slurs to escort her daughter to a formerly all ...
Nov 11, 2020 · Bridges gave birth to Ruby in Tylertown, Mississippi, in 1954 — the same year as the landmark Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision that ended racial segregation in schools.
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1954- At the tender age of six, Ruby Bridges advanced the cause of civil rights in November 1960 when she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South. Born on September 8, 1954, Bridges was the oldest of five children for Lucille and Abon Bridges, farmers in Tylertown, Mississippi.
