Zone1 Ruby Bridges: Racism Is A Grown-up Disease. Let’s Stop Using Our Kids To Spread It.

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

I knew who Ruby Bridges is but I never knew her story. It's only because her appearance on Stephen Cobert was aired on a Friday night that I still up late enough to see it, not having to worry about working in the morning and I am so glad that I was able to see her.

The details of this event make her part in this historical moment even more astounding and courageous and worth viewing the video. For example, I had no knowledge of any of the following facts:

1. Her parents were sharecroppers, who were approached about letting Ruby be the first child to receive an education as a part of desegregating the school system
2. That her parents were told that her doing this would probably allow Ruby to eventually attend college
3. Being share croppers, a college education was considered a luxury
4. That Ruby was the only child in her class for the first year because all of the white parents removed their children from school
5. That an instructor from New England was found to instruct Ruby who was her only student
   

After having watched Ms. Bridges on Stephen Cobert I was looking for the video so I could post it here but found a different one that is just as compelling because it discussed how the crowd would parade around a mock small casket for a child that they had placed a black baby inside in order to further threaten Rudy and her mother with impending death. Ms. Bridges saying that she used to have nightmares about that coffin touched my heart really hurt my heart. She also mentioned that one of the white children eventually told her that his mother told him he couldn't play her with her because she's a "n____r". She said that him providing her with that information (even though that may not have been his intent) made her feel like a huge burden had been lifted off of shoulders because she understood that had her mother told her not to play with another child because they are Asian or Indian or white she too would have done what her mother instructed so she said she was not angry with him, which is completely understandable.

So many people on this website try to downplay the impact of the laws of Jim Crow on the psyche and lives of Black people which I would hope is only because they have no idea of what life was actually like for those living under it. Each of these videos is less than 10 minutes but each very poignantly offers a glimpse into what life was like for one Black family and almost an entire town of white families, but not all. Ms. Bridges mentioned that there WERE white families who wanted and tried to send their children to school but they didn't have the protection of 4 armed federal marshals to escort them to class.

That video is here:
Ruby Bridges Fought Racism at 6 Years Old | Inspirational Documentary | Goalcast

 

[crossbody]

That's some really good information you posted. That era is full of good history concerning the integration of schools. There was so much pushback. It was a stronghold in that area.

Many years ago we toured Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. That is the school the "Little Rock Nine" black students attended in order to desegregate schools in that state. It really is a beautiful school on the inside with a huge auditorium that is really fancy on the inside to say it was built in 1927. A whole lot of tax payer dollars went into it.

In comparison to it, right down the street from it is the all black segregated Hall High School that looks like a one story mortuary with no auditorium and no second level, nothing fancy. Also at the all white Central High School; right across the street from it a fancy museum. Inside of the museum it details all of the history of racism and segregation throughout that time. You can see up close the nine blacks students being spit on, having things thrown at them, and the white males shouting in their faces as they would come to Central High. They had to bring in federal guards to keep those nine black students safe.

All of this going on at the same time from one state in America to the next state simply because white people did not want their children to be educated along side black children. I'm just glad Arkansas preserved this history of all of it so well. They have huge pictures and video reels of it in the museum. It's amazing how Ruby Bridges did what she did at such a young age; just a baby. Thanks for posting this.