Ruby Bridges Essay

1091 words - 5 pages

As a child, Ruby Bridges went through horrible things, just so she could go to a somewhat integrated school. She was chosen as one of the six colored children to go to an all-white school. She achieved this by having one of the highest scores on the test that determined whether she would go to a colored school or an all-white school. To get to this school, which was only five blocks away, she had to ride in a car with federal marshals, and then to get into the school, she had to be surrounded by four marshals so the protesters wouldn't try to hurt her. Ruby didn't understand why the protesters were there until she got out of school and when she came to the realization of why they were there, she said: “Racism is a grown-up disease; we have to stop using our children to spread it.” This is a very accurate quote, in my opinion. After watching the movie about Ruby, I saw how crude people were to her and all the messages about her that the parents stuck in their children’s minds. It's a sad thing to see but it did happen and it is a part of history, and it's especially a part of the past that has changed the way everybody looks at others now.

When Ruby was put into William Frantz, there was an outrage. None of the whites wanted a colored girl going to their school and they were not going to have anything to do with her. Many parents were so furious that they decided to pull their children out of the school. By doing this, they are making their children believe that Ruby does not belong in the school with them and that she doesn't deserve to be there. When the kids would hear their parent's talking about how she should not go to William Frantz, the kids would not want to go back to the school if she was there because they would probably think that there is something wrong with her. It would be this way since most kids that are around the age that Ruby was when she went to that school, believed everything their parents ever said. This is the biggest way that grown-ups spread racism to their children, just by word of mouth. The adults will be talking about how blacks aren't equal or how Ruby doesn't deserve to go to that school, and they won't even pay attention to the fact that their children are around. Then, their children will believe that that's the way everything should be.

After parents took their children out of William Frantz because of Ruby, they would drag them along to the protests at the school. When Ruby sees all of the children not in school, but protesting outside of it, she begins to feel as though she really doesn't belong there. The children outside protesting with their parents probably feel like they should be in school, but they don't want to since Ruby is there. I thought that the parents were very rude to the poor girl, but the children were bad, or even...

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