Life at the Bridges’ Humble Abode
The Bridges were a poor family that lived in Tylerton, Mississippi. Ruby Nell Bridges was their first child, and she was born in a very small cabin in 1954. Their only money came from her father, Abon, working in the fields. Before too long, he lost his job because his manual labor was no longer needed. With the invention of new machines, it was urgent to find a new job to support the family. In 1957, when Ruby was three, the family moved to New Orleans to start their new life. Abon worked as a janitor, and Ruby’s mother, Lucille, took care of the family during the day and took random jobs at night. Both parents were poorly educated, but supported Ruby and her eagerness to learn. She had no clue what integration and segregation were, but she would soon find out. By now, the family had grown, and had four more children. Ruby had three brothers and one sister. They went to church every Sunday. Ruby and her siblings were taught to pray often, and they believed God was always there to listen and protect her through her prayers. Without Ruby’s trust in God and love for others, her impact would not have been so powerful. Life at the Bridges’ home helped form the person Ruby became.
Ruby Bridges lived only 5 blocks from a white school, but she was forced to attend a black school, Johnson Lockett, several miles away. The overcrowded black schools were usually more run-down, and didn’t offer as many opportunities to the students. They tended not to have playgrounds, libraries, gyms, and even cafeterias/lunchrooms. The Brown v. Board of education case ignited the spread of integration. All nine judges decided that segregation in schools was unconstitutional and went against the 14th amendment in the Constitution. It was outlawed, but many people wouldn’t follow it, even if that meant breaking the law. At one point in time, a state constitution stated, “no child of either race shall ever be permitted to attend school provided for children of the other race.” A federal judge ordered that the New Orleans school district start admitting children of all races. State legislatures fought the federal court throughout the summer and beginning of fall. Twenty-eight new anti-integration laws were passed, and Louisiana legislature opposed integrated schools by blocking paychecks for teachers, tax money, and closing schools. Federal District Court Judge J. Skelly Wright did not allow the state’s to pass the new anti- integration laws. The NAACP contacted the Bridges family regarding enrolling six-year-old Ruby in a school to start integration. Lucille supported the idea of Ruby going to Frantz, for it would offer greater opportunities and education. As a child, Lucille only went to school for a few months a year and mostly worked in the corn and cotton fields with her family. She craved an education and cried when the school bus filled with white children drove by, taking them to school. On the other hand, Abon didn’t think it was necessary for Ruby to attend the school and thought Ruby would be able to get her education from the all-black school that she had previously attended. She already had made many friends. He feared for her safety, but Lucille won the disagreement.
Three other children, Leona, Tessie, and Gail, had been selected to start integrating schools, like Ruby, but they would be going to a different school, McDonogh Elementary School. School board tests were designed for blacks to fail, so segregation could continue. Ruby was one of the few black students to pass the school board test, and it outraged many southerners. The Louisiana governor, Jimmie H. Davis, supported the segregationists, so he threatened to close all public schools. The Louisiana state or New Orleans police would not help escort Ruby to school, so she was accompanied by four federal marshals even though she was supposed to be taken by the NAACP. November 14, 1960 was her first day of first grade at William Frantz Public Elementary School, and she was accompanied by the U.S. federal marshals all day. Ruby and her mother sat in the office all morning while many parents were disrupting class, complaining, and dragging their children out of the school. Ruby was the only African-American at her school and before too long many of the other students and staff had left. Not only were they disrespected by the school staff, but angry mobs lined the streets in front of the school. Mrs. Henry was the only teacher willing to help Ruby learn. The two had a very big connection and enjoyed spending time with each other. Their friendship grew so strong that would influence each other forever. People were finally becoming more open-minded. Ruby’s father, Abon, fought in the Korean War and experienced segregation during battle. He didn’t think blacks would ever be treated equal. He was wrong, but the battle for equality had a long, hard fight in front of it.
As the angry mobs continued on, Ruby became more worried and stressed. Ruby was taught to pray for her enemies, and that her bad dreams would go away if she prayed before bed. She marched through the infuriated crowd with her head held high, surrounded by her guards. The school was surrounded by mobs of angry white people, throwing eggs and tomatoes, outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision to integrate schools. Shouting moms, known as cheerleaders”, threatened and yelled things like, “two, four, six eight, we don’t want to integrate”. The streets of William Frantz were filled with people throwing rocks, food, and even flaming bottles of gasoline. Ruby was frightened when she saw a black doll displayed in a coffin. White people even left burning crosses in black neighborhoods as warnings. These threats began to take a major toll on Ruby, and a threat to poison her may have caused her to stop eating. A regular school day was spent in the classroom all day, alone with Mrs. Henry, and as far away from the protestors as possible. When Mrs.Henry spent lunch out of the classroom with other teachers, Ruby began to wish she was in the cafeteria with the other kids, so she hid her uneaten lunches in the cabinets. Soon, roaches and uneaten food were found by the janitor, and Ruby’s parents became worried. They decided to have Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist, visit with Ruby regularly to talk and draw about how she was feeling. Mrs.Henry decided to eat lunch with Ruby everyday, and they built a strong bond. This was a very secretive time for Mrs.Henry, and she was not allowed to be in contact with Ruby’s family. A constant fear of Ruby’s father being lynched was always in occurrence, and he was even fired from his job because his daughter was going to an integrated school. They were banned from their local grocery store, and Ruby’s grandparents lost the land they had been sharecropping for the past twenty-five years.
Later in the year, two more boys joined Ruby at Frantz. Their parents would rather them be learning than causing mischief around the house. Towards the end of the year a few more white students had come back, too. By second grade the mobs had given up, but Ruby no longer had federal marshals escorting her and no more Ms. Henry to help her out at school. She and her husband had moved back to Boston after her job wasn’t renewed. Ruby finished school at William Frantz Public School without the protesters, but with day-to-day discrimination. When she was in seventh-grade, her parents split up and got a divorce, but that didn’t prevent them from always supporting Ruby. Ruby graduated from the integrated Francis T. Nicholls High School and then studied travel and tourism at the Kansas City Business School. After college, she was one of the first African-Americans to work at American Express as a world travel agent. Her father died of a heart-attack when she was twenty-four. In 1993, Ruby’s youngest brother was murdered in a drug-related killing, his name was Malcolm Bridges and had four children who attended school at William Frantz Elementary School. Ruby took care of his kids and began volunteering at the school three days a week. She met and married Malcolm Hall, a building contractor, and had four sons who attend school in the New Orleans Public School System. Around 1995, Ms. Henry contacted Ruby, and they were reunited on the Oprah Winfrey Show. In the end, it all worked for Ruby. She stuck with her belief that she could get through anything by praying and obeying, and that’s what she did.
Although Ruby faced many people who discouraged her, she had many supporters as well. People around the world found out about the dramatic scene in New Orleans. Locals offered Abon a job, to babysit, to protect Ruby and the marshals, and to serve as extra protection to the Bridges’ home. To show even more support, they sent money, gifts, and letters from around the country, including a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt. Before that, Ruby had never realized how important she was. Today, Ruby is a successful business women who speaks at schools, participates in book signings, and has created the Ruby Bridges Foundation. The Ruby Bridges Foundation was created to promote racial equality, nationally and locally. She hired teachers and started ballet, African dance, and manners and etiquette classes. She helps promote parent participation in schools and cultural understanding within communities. William Frantz has been vacant since the devastating Hurricane Katrina. The Ruby Bridges Foundation’s goal is to create a new school, Bridges School of Community Service and Social Justice. This school encourages and teaches leaders who are involved in social justice, community service, equality, and racial healing through nonviolence. The impact of Ruby Bridges is bigger than Ruby could have ever imagined. She teaches the world to have trust in God, be caring, to genuinely love others, to have courage, and to always be hopeful.