Editing Ruby Bridges (section)

==Integration==
[[File:William Franz Elemetary School NOLA Pauline Galvez 2.JPG|thumb|William Frantz Elementary School building in 2010]]

Bridges attended a segregated [[kindergarten]] in 1959.<ref name="Ruby Bridges"/> In early 1960, Bridges was one of six black children in New Orleans to pass the test that determined whether they could go to the all-white [[William Frantz Elementary School]]. Two of the six decided to stay at their old school, Bridges went to Frantz by herself, and three children (Gail Etienne, Leona Tate and Tessie Prevost) were transferred to the all-white [[McDonogh 19 Elementary School|McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School]]. All four 6-year-old girls were escorted to school by [[United States Marshals Service|federal marshals]] during the first day they attended the two schools. In the following days of that year, federal marshals continued to escort them.

Bridges's father was initially reluctant, but her mother felt strongly that the move was needed not only to give her own daughter a better education, but to "take this step forward&nbsp;... for all African-American children". Her mother finally convinced her father to let her go to the school.<ref name="gp-p3-4">Ruby Bridges Hall. "The Education of Ruby Nell," ''Guideposts'', March 2000, pp. 3–4.</ref>

Judge [[J. Skelly Wright]]'s court order for the first day of integrated schools in New Orleans on Monday, November 14, 1960, was commemorated by [[Norman Rockwell]] in the painting, ''[[The Problem We All Live With]]'' (published in [[Look (American magazine)|''Look'' magazine]] on January 14, 1964).<ref name="newshour">Charlayne Hunter-Gault. [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues-jan-june97-bridges_2-18/ "A Class of One: A Conversation with Ruby Bridges Hall,"] Online NewsHour, February 18, 1997</ref> As Bridges describes it, "Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was [[New Orleans Mardi Gras|Mardi Gras]]. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras."<ref name="newshour"/> Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, "She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn't whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we're all very very proud of her."<ref name="abbey">Susannah Abbey. [http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=rubybridges Freedom Hero: Ruby Bridges]</ref>

[[File:US Marshals with Young Ruby Bridges on School Steps.jpg|right|thumb|U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school in 1960]]

As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers except for one refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Bridges, and that was [[Barbara Henry]], from [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], and for over a year Henry taught her alone, "as if she were teaching a whole class."{{Attribution needed|reason=What is the source of this quote?|date=August 2023}}

That first day, Bridges and her mother spent the entire day in the principal's office; the chaos of the school prevented their moving to the classroom until the second day. On the second day, however, a white student broke the boycott and entered the school when a 34-year-old Methodist minister, Lloyd Anderson Foreman, walked his five-year-old daughter Pam through the angry mob, saying, "I simply want the privilege of taking my child to school". A few days later, other white parents began bringing their children, and the protests began to subside.<ref name="cbs" /><ref>Ellen Blue, ''St. Mark's and the Social Gospel: Methodist Women and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1895–1965'', pp. 161–162 (University of Tennessee Press, 2011).</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=April 19, 2019 |title=The Longest Walk: How A Kindergartener Became A Civil Rights Ally |url=https://www.wwno.org/arts-culture/2019-04-19/the-longest-walk-how-a-kindergartener-became-a-civil-rights-ally|quote=[Pam Foreman Testroet]: I had recess, even though it was just me. [...] I didn't understand why we couldn't play together, I mean we were the only two kids in school, but even then they kept us separate. |access-date=January 23, 2024 |publisher=[[WWNO|WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio]] |first=Sarah |last=Holtz |language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327170145/https://www.wwno.org/arts-culture/2019-04-19/the-longest-walk-how-a-kindergartener-became-a-civil-rights-ally|archive-date=March 27, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref>

Yet Bridges remained the only child in her class, as she would until the following year. Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her, while another held up a black baby doll in a coffin.<ref name="wnet">[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/history/spotlight_september3.html Excerpts from ''Through My Eyes''], at African American World for Kids {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070527190805/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/history/spotlight_september3.html |date=May 27, 2007}}</ref> This led the U.S. Marshals dispatched to oversee her safety to only allow Bridges to eat the food that she brought from home,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.biography.com/activist/ruby-bridges |title=Ruby Bridges Biography |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=August 28, 2019 |website=Biography.com |publisher=A&E Television Networks |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref> and she was not allowed to participate in recess.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Remember Them |url=http://www.remember-them.org/bridges.htm |access-date=August 14, 2023 |website=www.remember-them.org}}</ref>

[[Child psychiatry|Child psychiatrist]] [[Robert Coles (psychiatrist)|Robert Coles]] volunteered to provide counseling to Bridges during her first year at Frantz. He met with her weekly in the Bridges home, and in 1995 wrote a children's book, ''The Story of Ruby Bridges'', to acquaint other children with Bridges's story.<ref name="TB">{{cite news |last=Bennett |first=Lennie |date=April 22, 2015 |title=The Icon in the Image |url=https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/visualarts/civil-rights-icon-ruby-bridges-hall-discusses-norman-rockwells-famous/2226397 |work=Tampa Bay Times |location=Tampa Bay, FL |page=1A |access-date=November 15, 2018}}</ref> Coles donated the royalties from the sale of that book to the Ruby Bridges Foundation, to provide money for school supplies or other educational needs for impoverished New Orleans school children.<ref name="Judson"/>

The Bridges family suffered for their decision to send her to William Frantz Elementary: her father lost his job as a gas station attendant;<ref name="CBN">{{cite web |url=http://www.cbn.com/special/BlackHistory/UnderGod_RubyBridges.aspx |title=In a Class of Only One: Ruby Bridges|last1=Mac |first1=Toby |last2=Tait |first2=Michael |website=www.cbn.com |publisher=Christian Broadcasting Network |access-date=November 15, 2018}}</ref> the grocery store the family shopped at would no longer let them shop there; her grandparents, who were [[Sharecropping|sharecroppers]] in Mississippi, were turned off their land; and Abon and Lucille Bridges separated.<ref name="Judson"/>

Bridges has noted that many others in the community, both black and white, showed support in a variety of ways. Some white families continued to send their children to Frantz despite the protests, a neighbor provided her father with a new job, and local people babysat, watched the house as protectors, and walked behind the federal marshals' car on the trips to school.<ref name="newshour"/><ref name="gp-p5">Bridges Hall, ''Guideposts'' p. 5.</ref> It was not until Bridges was an adult that she learned that the immaculate clothing she wore to school in those first weeks at Frantz was sent to her family by a relative of Coles. Bridges says her family could never have afforded the dresses, socks, and shoes that are documented in photographs of her escort by U.S. Marshals to and from the school.<ref name="TB"/>