Ruby Bridges and the Desegregation of American Schools
A LETTER FROM DUCHESS Artist Norman Rockwell was famous for his paintings of American life He showed the lives of American families and American values Sometimes he also showed America’s serious problems Rockwell did this in a painting called The Problem We All Live With His painting shows a young black girl walking to school She wears a white dress and carries her schoolbooks In front of her are two US marshals in suits The scene is from a child’s point of view so the men’s heads are blocked by the top of the frame Behind the girl on a wall are a thrown tomato and a racial insult Who is the little girl Her name is Ruby Bridges She played an important role in desegregating American schools in the 1960s Bridges faced severe hardships as she struggled to get an education Her legacy remains strong today as an example of strength in the face of injustice Please join me on this journey to learn about Bridges’s life and legacy an important story of the promise of freedom
Ruby Bridges left speaks with President Barack Obama in front of Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With
CHAPTER ONE
RUBY’S FIRST DAY On the morning of November 14 1960 six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked up the steps to William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans Louisiana Her mother walked beside her It was Ruby’s first day at the school An angry mob shouted at her Four US federal marshals surrounded and protected her Ruby did not understand why a mob of people was gathered around the school The only thing her parents had told her was that she would be going to a new school and that she had better behave No one had A crowd of white protesters gathered outside William Frantz Elementary School on Ruby Bridges’s first day at the school in 1960
