Join CES in honoring Ruby Bridges by walking to school tomorrow!
On Wednesday, November 17, Walking Wednesdays will commemorate Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day.
This event was started in 2018 by a group of 5th graders from San Mateo, CA. They learned about Ruby and decided she needed a special day to celebrate her. At six years old, Ruby Bridges advanced the cause of civil rights on November 14, 1960 when she was the first African American to integrate an elementary school in New Orleans. Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day is a great way for students to honor the courage of Ruby and the advancement of civil rights. Her simple but courageous act of showing up for school each day played an important part in the Civil Rights Movement.
(source: World Book Student)
Who is Ruby Bridges?
Ruby Bridges was one of the first African American children to integrate an elementary school in the Deep South region of the United States. In 1960, as a 6-year-old first-grader, she was the only black student to enter the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. On Nov. 14, 1960, federal marshals escorted Bridges on her first day of school, where the child was met by angry mobs. Parents of white students boycotted the court-ordered integration and took their children out of the school. Many of the school's teachers walked out. Bridges was taught by a white teacher named Barbara Henry, and she was the only student in her class for the entire school year.
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