Events

The Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day takes place on Thursday, November 14. It provides a perfect opportunity to teach children about the civil rights movement and make connections to today’s collective efforts for change. 

Ruby Bridges was a young girl growing up in mid-1900s Louisiana. She spent her kindergarten year in a segregated classroom, despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court had officially ended racial segregation in public schools in 1945 through their ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. In 1960, a federal court ordered Louisiana schools to comply with desegregation. The school district responded by creating an entrance exam for African-American students. Ruby and five other students passed the test and were to be sent to two different all-White schools. The district delayed their start, and Ruby’s first day was November 14, 1960. A few days before, the two students who were going to attend Frantz Elementary School with Ruby decided to stay in their home school, so Ruby braved the experience on her own. 

Learn more at RubyBridges.foundation.