RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
A little girl walked to school on the first day as many children do. Like other children she was a little nervous about the new beginning and possibly unaware of just how much lay ahead of her.
This wasn't the type of first day at school that may come to mind.
When she was 6 years old, Ruby Bridges' volunteered their daughter to be the first black student in an all-white, but recently desegregated, elementary school in New Orleans.
With the backing from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and President John Kennedy, Ruby was the first black child to attend William Frantz Elementary School, as well as the first to attend an all-white elementary school in the south.
People gathered in front of the school to protest not only desegregation but more personally, Ruby attending their school.
"We couldn't trust the police," said Lucille Bridges, Ruby's mother, as she retold the story to students and faculty gathered at Randolph Field Elementary School as part of Womens' History Month. "They had their kids in the school."
She said the school board, the city government, police department and just about every other white person in the city was angry with them and did what they could to keep Ruby from the school.
"The police said we couldn't go," she said. "The marshals said the president said we could."
Mrs. Bridges said people in the crowd gathered were throwing eggs and tomatoes - whatever they could find. She said someone threw an egg and it was aimed right at her head but a marshal caught it just in time. It broke in his hand and not her head.
Ruby's teacher told Mrs. Bridges that one day that as she approached the school, Ruby stopped and seemed to talk to people in the crowd. The teacher had a good view from her classroom window. After a moment, and with the insistence of the marshals, Ruby continued into the school to her classroom, which she shared with only the teacher. She asked why Ruby stopped to talk to the people, to which Ruby replied by saying she didn't stop to talk to them.
After some back and forth banter, Ruby said every morning she stops to say a prayer for the people gathered to taunt her, but that morning she forgot to do it in the quiet and safety around the corner from the school. She said she stopped in the crowd to say her morning prayer asking forgiveness for the crowd, because they really didn't know what they were doing.
The marshals had to close off the Bridges' house and the whole block to protect the family from the harassment and occasional violence.
Mrs. Bridges said people called to threaten them, even after they changed their phone number.
She said people who worked for the phone company had children in the school and would give out their phone number.
Ruby's fad lost his job when his long-time employer found out who his daughter was.
Mrs. Bridges said they lived on the river front at the time and people were able to bring groceries and money using the river, instead of the street.
After she spoke, Mrs. Bridges took questions from the students and teachers, who were curious about how they lived.
"I wasn't scared," she replied to a question from a student asking if she was afraid. "I knew the U.S. marshals were going to take care of us."