Ruby Bridges
In a 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court made racial segregation illegal. Ruby was chosen to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School. The school board said black children could attend the first grade if they passed a test. Bridges passed a test. On her first day of school four U.S. Marshals had to go with her to school. She went straight to the principal's office.She sat in the principal's office all day.  Angry crowds of parents shouted threats at her. For the next six months the marshals took her to and from her school. Ruby had to spend the entire first school year alone with one teacher, Barbara Henry. People tried to hurt her family. Her father lost his job and her grandparents were thrown off their farm in Georgia. Ruby never missed a day of school that year. The story of her going to a white school is the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting called The Problem We All Live With.