āAs Bridges describes it, āDriving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.āĀ Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, āShe showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didnāt whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and weāre all very very proud of her.āĀ
U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school
As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Ruby and that was Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, and for over a year Henry taught her alone, āas if she were teaching a whole class.ā
Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her;Ā because of this, the U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, allowed Ruby to eat only the food that she brought from home.
Another woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges Hall has said āscared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us.ā At her motherās suggestion, Bridges began to pray on the way to school, which she found provided protection from the comments yelled at her on the daily walks.ā
More info on Ruby Bridges on Wikipedia
THIS SHIT WAS ONLY 58 YEARS AGO. PEOPLE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS RACIST TERRORISM AND ACTS LIKE IT ARE STILL ALIVE, AND THEIR KIDS ARE IN THEIR 40ā²S AND 50ā²S.Ā
DONāT LET RACISM APOLOGISTS GET AWAY WITHĀ āWHY ARE YOU LIVING IN THE PAST,ā BULLSHIT ARGUMENTS. WE ARE LITERALLY STILL DEALING WITH THE FAMILIES THAT FORMED HATE MOBS OVER BLACK CHILDREN ATTENDING SCHOOL WITH WHITE KIDS.
