In 1960 Ruby Bridges was one of six kids to integrate a public school in New Orleans. Norman Rockwell commemorated the civil rights moment with a painting that graced the cover of Look Magazine in 1964.
On January 24th there is a fundraiser at a school named after Bridges to send 5th graders to a science camp and Bridges, now Bridges Hall is the keynote speaker.
Here are 10 things I learned about Ruby Bridges:
1. She is 60 years old and celebrated the 50th year reunion of her integrating the school in 2010.
2. The Norman Rockwell painting was entitled: "The Problem we all Live With".
3. Bridges thought the people were shouting for Marti Gras, not in protest of her integrating the school.
4. All the white kids were pulled out of her class and for one year she was the sole student in the class.
5. She only ate food brought from home because of the threats to poison her food.
6. She met weekly with a psychiatrist who later wrote a children's book "The Story of Ruby Bridges".
7. She still lives in New Orleans and is chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation.
8. Bridges was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton in 2001.
9. Her home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
10. There is a sculpture of her in the "Remember Them" monument in Oakland, California and a statute of her in front of the school she integrated.
Peace, love, compassion, and blessings.