Ruby bridges for kids facts
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Ruby Bridges
In , Ruby Bridges (September 8, —present) walked through the doors of William Frantz Elementary School, in New Orleans, Louisiana. By doing so, she became the first African-American student to attend an all-white elementary school in the Southern United States.
On November 14, , Ruby Bridges became a emblem of the U.S. civil rights movement. She was just 6 years old. Her simple act of going to an all-white school marked the beginning of integration for U.S. public schools.
Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, on September 8, A few months before her birth, the Supreme Court—the nation’s highest court —had issued a ruling on five combined cases that would impact not only Bridges’s life, but also change the course of American history.
In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the prosecution wanted to end the idea of “separate but lika schools.” In many places in the U.S., black students and white students could not attend the same school. On May 17,
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It may not seem like a big deal to go to school. Millions of kids in America do it every day. However, in , one young girl’s trip to school became a historic moment in American history. Her name was Ruby Bridges.
Ruby was one of the first African American children to attend a previously white-only elementary school in Louisiana. Many southern restaurants, schools, businesses and other parts of the community were segregated at that time. So when Ruby, at the age of six, walked into school that day, she did so in the face of much opposition. In fact, her mom and U.S. marshals had to escort her past the shouts and threats from people who did not want her attending.
Ruby Bridges became another example of the power children have to stand up for what is right and help bring about change that makes our world a better place. In the decades since she first stepped into that New Orleans school, Ruby has become a civil rights icon and continued her work to create a more open and
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Ruby Bridges Facts
“My message is really that racism has no place in the hearts and minds of our children.”
Explore our Ruby Bridges Lesson for KS1
Who is Ruby Bridges?
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana, New Orleans, in November
The Civil Rights Movement
Ruby was born to parents Abon and Lucille on 8th September, , in the middle of the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the s and s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. At that time, many Southern states in the USA implemented laws which meant that separate schools, restaurants, public toilets, and transportation were required based on the colour of a person’s skin. This was called segregation.
In the same year that Ruby was born, in the landmark case of Brow