11/18/2022
HEY LOCO FANS – On November 14, 1960, a court order mandating the desegregation of schools comes into effect in New Orleans, Louisiana. Six-year-old Ruby Bridges walks into William Frantz Elementary School, accompanied by federal marshals and taunted by angry crowds, instantly becoming a symbol of the civil rights movement, an icon for the cause of racial equality and a target for racial animosity.
The Supreme Court ordered the end of segregated public schools in Brown vs. Board of Education just a few months before Bridges was born, but it was not until after her kindergarten year that the City of New Orleans finally assented. African American children in New Orleans were given a test, and only those who passed were allowed to enroll in all-white public schools. Bridges passed the test and became the only one of the six eligible students to attend Frantz Elementary.
Bridges did not attend any classes on November 14 due to the chaos outside the school. No other students attended and all but one teacher, stayed home in protest of desegregation. Eventually a white father finally broke the boycott and brought his son to school. That year white students were kept separate from the school’s lone Black student. Henry, whom Bridges said was the “the nicest teacher I ever had,” taught a class consisting of only Bridges for the entire school year. Federal marshaled continued to es**rt her to school for that time, and crowds chanting racial slurs and making death threats continued to greet Bridges for months.
Bridges’ family suffered enormously—her father lost his job, her sharecropper grandparents were kicked off of their land and her parents eventually separated—but they also received support in the form of gifts, donations, a new job offer for her father. The following year, the school became further integrated, and Bridges attended class with both Black and white children without major incident. Today, Bridges remains a household name and an icon of the civil rights movement.