Black History Month: Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on November 14, 1960. (from Wikipedia).
Ruby Bridges has a new picture book: See this interview below from the Library of Congress from September 2022.
Books in our SORA Collection
We have six books by or about Ruby Bridges in our Monroe One SORA account:
- This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
Written as a letter from civil rights activist and icon Ruby Bridges to the reader, This is Your Time is both a recounting of Ruby's experience as a child who had to be escorted to class by federal marshals when she was chosen to be one of the first black students to integrate into New Orleans' all-white public school system and an appeal to generations to come to effect change. - Ruby Bridges Goes to School by Ruby Bridges
The extraordinary true story of Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to integrate a New Orleans school - now with simple text for young readers! - She Persisted: Ruby Bridges by Kekla Magoon (audiobook)
- She Persisted: Ruby Bridges by Kekla Magoon (ebook)
In this chapter book biography by NAACP Image Award-winning author and Coretta Scott King Honor recipient Kekla Magoon, readers learn about the amazing life of Ruby Bridges-and how she persisted. - The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
The year is 1960, and six-year-old Ruby Bridges and her family have recently moved from Mississippi to New Orleans in search of a better life. When a judge orders Ruby to attend first grade at William Frantz Elementary, an all-white school, Ruby must face angry mobs of parents who refuse to send their children to school with her. - Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963 by Sharon Robinson
An incredible memoir from Sharon Robinson about one of the most important years of the civil rights movement.
Multimedia Resources
You can find this video in our SAFARI Montage catalog.
Ruby Bridges (Disney)
Grades 3-9
Disney presents this live-action film starring Kevin Pollack and Penelope Ann Miller. When 6-year-old Ruby is chosen to be the first African American to integrate her local New Orleans elementary school in the 1960s, she is subjected to the true ugliness of racism for the first time. With the guidance and love of her mother, Ruby struggles for a better education. Adapted from the book by Robert Coles, child psychiatrist, Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who witnessed Ruby's struggles and is played by Kevin Pollack in the film.The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: Rise! (1940-1968) (PBS)
Grades 8 to Adult
This episode of ''The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'' examines the long road to civil rights, when the deep contradictions in American society finally became unsustainable. Beginning in World War II, African Americans who helped fight fascism abroad came home to face the same old racial violence. But this time, mass media -- from print to radio and television -- broadcast that injustice to the world, planting seeds of resistance. And the success of black entrepreneurs and entertainers fueled African-American hopes and dreams. In December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, heralding the dawn of a new movement of quiet resistance, with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as its public face. Before long, masses of African Americans practiced this nonviolent approach at great personal risk to integrate public schools, lunch counters and more. As the Civil Rights Movement scored one historic victory after another, non-violence was still all too often met with violence -- until finally, enough was enough. By 1968, Dr. King, the apostle of non-violence, would be assassinated, unleashing a new call for ''Black Power'' across the country.She Persisted
Grades K-3
Chelsea Clinton celebrates thirteen American women who helped shape our country through their tenacity, sometimes through speaking out, sometimes by staying seated, sometimes by captivating an audience. They all certainly persisted. This book features: Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Clara Lemlich, Nellie Bly, Virginia Apgar, Maria Tallchief, Claudette Colvin, Ruby Bridges, Margaret Chase Smith, Sally Ride, Florence Griffith Joyner, Oprah Winfrey, Sonia Sotomayor—and one special cameo.
Barbara Henry: Teaching Ruby Bridges
Grades 3-12
In the 1960s, Black schoolgirl Ruby Bridges and White teacher Barbara Henry showed America the true power of racial integration in the classroom.
Barbara Henry: Teaching Ruby Bridges
Grades 3-12
In the 1960s, Black schoolgirl Ruby Bridges and White teacher Barbara Henry showed America the true power of racial integration in the classroom.
Ruby Bridges Remembers (Scholastic)
Grades K-8
This Scholastic video features an interview with Ruby Bridges, who reflects on desegregation and being the first African-American student to attend William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960 at age 6.A Class of One: An Interview with Ruby Bridges (Learn 360)
Grades 6-12
In 1960 6-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school. Thirty-seven years later Ruby Bridges Hall discusses her memories of the first day she entered her new school in New Orleans; her first year when she was in a class of one and her efforts to improve education. She spoke with PBS NewsHour correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault in this 1997 interview. Original broadcast date: February 18 1997 (9 minutes)