Ruby

  Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 in Tylertown, Mississippi at a time when segregation was not legal. Black people could ride the same bus as a white person and black people could live where ever they want to live. However, black people were not allowed to go to an all white school. Black people had their own school. Ruby bacame the first African-American child to attend an all white-school in the south in 1960. Ruby's family was very, very poor. Ruby's dad worked picking crops and her mom took care of the children. When Ruby was 4 years old her family moved to New Orleans, Louisaina. When it was time for Ruby to go to school, her mom wanted Ruby to go to a white school but her dad did not want Ruby to go to a white school. Hermom thought that Ruby would get a better education so that when Ruby graduated fromschool, she could get a better job. Because Ruby passed a very hard test, she was sent to first grade in the William Frantz Elementary school. White people didn't like Ruby in the white school. They tried to poison Ruby, and they made a poster saying "White people only." On Ruby's second day of school the white people would not send their children to school, and when Ruby got in school she was all alone except for her teacher. Every day before school Ruby stopped to pray. For the rest of the year she was the only one in her class.Ruby met a very nice doctor who visited her and wanted her to go to a class with white children. After Christmas, Ruby started going to a class whith white children. She worked very hard in school, and did a good job. After many years, Ruby graduated and became a travel agent. She had four sons. She had a niece who went the William Frantz Elementary school. Dhe started helping at school. She decided to head nonprofit Ruby Bridges Foundation in New Orleans. She helped bring together schoolchildren from different back grounds who would never met. A book about //The Story of Ruby Bridges// was published in 1995. She was in Disney movie and evn on TV. In 2001, she received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Ruby Bridges died in 2005. Reading about Ruby Bridges helped me to understand how black people didn't go to school with white children only 49 years ago. I had never thought about that before. Ruby Bridges life was importand because she helped other black children to go to a white school together. I don't beliave that it was nice for the white people to be mean to the black people back then. However, I don't think that black people should be mean to white people now. We should all live together regardless of the color of our skin or where born.