Ruby Bridges, who made history at age six when she walked into a grade school in Louisiana surrounded by federal marshals, is scheduled to speak Wednesday, March 19 at the Carpenter Center at Cal State Long Beach. Tickets to attend are $10.
In 1960, public education throughout the South was divided by longstanding tradition into separate schools for black and white students. Her walk into the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, on November 14, 1960, was the first-ever move to desegregate schools in America.
That same day, three other black students also attended formerly all-white schools in New Orleans, but Bridges was the only one to enroll on her own. Her mother accompanied her into the school, but they spent the first day in the principal’s office, due to the chaos.
During the era when civil rights came to the forefront of America, her journey to school that first day was met with an angry mob of white Southerners who shouted, catcalled and threw things. She walked in accompanied by four federal law enforcement officers. None of the white parents would allow their children to attend the school that day, and all but one teacher refused to show up for work.
Eventually, the students returned, but none of them was willing to share a classroom with her. Bridges was taught in a classroom by herself by teacher Barbara Henry all year long.
The child’s bravery in the face of such opposition inspired Norman Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With,” a book by Robert Coles and a Disney movie, among other tributes. Since then, Bridges has become an inspirational speaker and icon of the Civil Rights movement.
General admission tickets to hear Bridges speak are $10 and can be purchased online, three tickets maximum per person. Doors open at 6 p.m. The evening begins at 7 p.m. No backpacks are allowed. There is a fee to park at the Richard & Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, which is located at 6200 E Atherton St. Long Beach. (562) 985-7000
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