Ruby Bridges was the first black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960.
This movie made me cry, I was so heart broken by how Ruby Bridges was treated! She was only 6, but was so strong. She is a very brave girl and she did not care what the white folks called her.
People are simply disgusting to minimize people by skin color!
Ruby you might not think you’re a hero… But to other people you are! You are A HERO and you are A PERSON WHO MADE AMERICA CHANGE!
this is white culture, this is their history, this is their legacy…being enraged at a damn baby just because she’s black.
she’s still alive by the way
Ruby Bridges in 2010
“As Bridges describes it, “Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was 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.“ 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.“
U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school
As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Ruby 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.”
Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her; because of this, the U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, allowed Ruby to eat only the food that she brought from home.
Another woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges Hall has said “scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us.” At her mother’s suggestion, Bridges began to pray on the way to school, which she found provided protection from the comments yelled at her on the daily walks.”
THIS SHIT WAS ONLY 58 YEARS AGO. PEOPLE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS RACIST TERRORISM AND ACTS LIKE IT ARE STILL ALIVE, AND THEIR KIDS ARE IN THEIR 40′S AND 50′S.
DON’T LET RACISM APOLOGISTS GET AWAY WITH “WHY ARE YOU LIVING IN THE PAST,” BULLSHIT ARGUMENTS. WE ARE LITERALLY STILL DEALING WITH THE FAMILIES THAT FORMED HATE MOBS OVER BLACK CHILDREN ATTENDING SCHOOL WITH WHITE KIDS.
This was her then:
This is literally how she looks in 2017.
She’s literally not even old.
I remember watching this movie as a little girl. Still wonderful. And Ruby is gorgeous! She’s my momma’s age.
I remember watching this movie when I was young. I was so inspired, I ended up writing a paper on Ruby Bridges during Black History Month. She’s so strong and an inspiration, and I’m tired of folks saying racism is something in the past. It’s still alive and well, and just as ugly as it’s ever been. Like Ruby, there are people alive today who well remember being in this situation. Even my own grandfather who is alive today remembers coming back from war and being unable to eat in “white only” restaurants.
I thank @diva-gonzo for that one, for I have the books… but they’re in French, so that would have been awkward to read.
Transcript:
The final match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, was to take place on the last weekend of May. Although Slytherin had been narrowly defeated by Hufflepuff in their last match, Gryffindor were not daring to hope for victory, due mainly (though of course nobody said it to him) to Ron’s abysmal goal-keeping record. He, however, seemed to have found a new optimism.
“I mean, I can’t get any worse, can I?” he told Harry and Hermione grimly over breakfast on the morning of the match. “Nothing to lose now, is there?”
“You know”, said Hermione, as she and Harry walked down to the pitch a little later in the midst of a very excitable crowd, “I think Ron might do better without Fred and George around. They never exactly gave him a lot of confidence.”
Luna Lovegood overtook them with what appeared to be a live eagle perched on top of her head.
they (esp the twins) were really shitty to ron and looking back, it’s quite unsettling that ron was afraid of them. they straight up bullied him (esp the twins) and it shouldn’t be shrugged off with a simple “it’s called being siblings.”
bill, charlie and percy are cool tho
Ron’s relationship with the twins is NOT what healthy sibling relationships look like.
Seriously. I’m not an only child; the way Fred and George treated Ron is deeply, utterly fucked-up.
Like, Christ Almighty, even Hermione noticed how bad the twins were for Ron! She remarks that since their departure, Ron seems happier and more relaxed. That’s a HUGE red flag here! If not having someone around makes you less tense, it means that there’s a goddamn problem in your relationship!
In the books Ron’s family tends to be weirdly passive-aggressive towards him. Even kind, mild-mannered Bill calls Ron an idiot once – with the big brother worship Ron has going on, it probably stung.
Percy and Ginny, in the first five books, are shown to be supportive of Ron – before HBP happens and suddenly Ginny becomes A Hot Badass Strong Female Character, which if you’re fluent in Rowling translates into “an abusive b-”.
I love Fred and George, really I do. I’m still not over Fred’s… accident… and I tend to avoid post-war stories because of it. But that doesn’t change the fact that they were awful big brothers to Ron.
Very true. The twins were seriously horrible to Ron (although, Fred definitely more than George). Ginny was pretty horrendous in HBP with no clear reason why, and even Bill could be rude to Ron for seemingly no reason. Percy was okay at first, but his personality did clash with Ron’s a lot.
I’m of the opinion that Charlie was pretty much the only one of Ron’s siblings who treated him with the respect he deserved. Which is worrying considering that Ron is one of seven children. That’s not a good sign.
Harry Potter: Congratulations. You’re officially the last one to know.
Harry Potter: I mean, apart from Hermione. How she can’t tell that you fancy her is beyond me…
Example five billion of Steve Kloves not understanding the Weasley family at all. The twins grew up in poverty; do you really think they’d raise their prices just to belittle Ron?
Headcanonsandmore 