The Children’s Museum Remembers Former U.S. Marshal Charles Burks, Who Protected 6-Year-Old Ruby Bridges | The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (2024)

FAQs

What happened to Ruby Bridges when she went to school? ›

Ruby faced blatant racism every day while entering the school. Many parents kept their children at home. People outside the school threw objects, police set up barricades. She was threatened and even “greeted" by a woman displaying a black doll in a wooden coffin.

Ruby Nell Bridges Hall is an American Hero. She was the first African American child to desegregate William Frantz Elementary School. At six years old, Ruby's bravery helped pave the way for Civil Rights action in the American South.

Ruby Bridges - First Black Child to Integrate an All-White Elementary School in the South. On November 14, 1960, at the age of six, Ruby Bridges changed history and became the first African American child to integrate an all-white elementary school in the South.

Ruby's parents and grandparents were sharecroppers in Mississippi before her family moved to New Orleans in search of better opportunity. In New Orleans, Ruby shared a bedroom with her younger sister and two younger brothers. Ruby enjoyed playing jump rope, softball and climbing trees when she was a child.

After graduating from a desegregated high school, she worked as a travel agent for 15 years and later became a full-time parent. She is now chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which she formed in 1999 to promote "the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences".

Most white parents also would not let their children attend the Frantz School anymore, so Ruby was the only student in her first grade class for most of the year.

The morning of November 14, 1960, a little girl named Ruby Bridges got dressed and left for school. At just six years old, Ruby became the first Black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.

One famous quote by Ruby Bridges was from a speech given at the dedication of her new Ruby Bridges Foundation ceremony. She said, "Racism is a grownup disease. Let's stop using kids to spread it."

Ruby graduated from a desegregated high school, became a travel agent, married and had four sons. She was reunited with her first teacher, Henry, in the mid 1990s, and for a time the pair did speaking engagements together. Ruby later wrote about her early experiences in two books and received the Carter G.

The museum provides virtual museum tours and programs. Learn more about Ruby Bridges and her work by visiting the Ruby Bridges Foundation. Wear purple! It's Ruby's favorite color.

Did Ruby Bridges get married? ›

Ruby Bridges got married to Malcolm Hall and had four sons. In 1993, her brother was shot and killed in New Orleans. Ruby's family went to New Orleans to take care of his daughters. In 1999, she wrote a children's book, "Through My Eyes", telling her story and what she went through.

Answer and Explanation: Malcolm Bridges's, Ruby's younger brother's, death inspired her to establish the Ruby Bridges Foundation. She is currently a promoter of education and helps educate destitute, orphaned, and needy children.

Bridges son Craig Hall was killed in a street shooting in New Orleans in 2005. The crime remains unsolved.

When she was four years old, her family moved to New Orleans. Two years later a test was given to the city's African American schoolchildren to determine which students could enter all-white schools. Bridges passed the test and was selected for enrollment at the city's William Frantz Elementary School.

Ruby had fun playing with her friends in New Orleans. They played softball, jumped rope, and climbed trees. Ruby went to kindergarten at an all black school. The schools in New Orleans at that time were segregated.

Bridges says she sees her 6-year-old self enduring a lonely and confusing year in the children's letters. After walking past mobs of protesters, Bridges attended classes alone — and did so for the full year. Some white families permanently withdrew their children from the school because Bridges was a student there.

Ruby had to be escorted to school by federal mashals for the entire school year. She was the only student in the classroom with teacher Barbara Henry, the only teacher willing to accept her, and she spent most of her lunches and recesses alone. In spite of all this, Ruby showed up every day, ready to learn.

After the first grade, things became more normal for Ruby. She walked to school without the Federal Marshals and attended a full classroom that had both white and black students. She missed Mrs. Henry, but eventually got used to her new classroom and teacher.

Ruby Bridges was 29 or 30 at the time she married Malcolm Hall in 1984. Since their marriage, the couple has had four children together, all boys.