Rare Ruby by Louise Elliot

         Surrounded by the wriggling fingers of excited school children, Ruby Bridges' face looks young and fresh - too young and fresh to belong to an icon of the US civil rights movement. But that's because her tale of heroism and hardship isn't all that old.

        On November 14, 1960, a 6-year-old Bridges, escorted by four gun-toting US federal marshals, walked past a screaming mob of angry white people to do the unthinkable in New Orleans at the time: Go to school with white children.

        "We think it happened a very long time ago," the 45-year-old Bridges said yesterday in an interview at Donwood Park Junior Public School in Scarborough. "But if we don't take precautionary measures now, it will happen all over again."

        "It" is the civil strife which nearly tore our nation apart when southern blacks, led by Martin Luther King Jr., began to demand equal rights, including equal access to a decent education. Today Bridges fights racism through regular speaking engagements at Canadian and US Schools. 

        But she insist on telling her story to children only, without reporters present, because she believes children are the only hope for stopping racism before bigotry has a chance to set in.

        On that November day almost 40 years ago, Bridges was surrounded by bigotry. Backed by an order from Federal District Court Judge J. Skelly Wright, she walked quietly up the steps of William Frantz public school, past youths who were chanting, "Two, four, six, eight! We don't want to integrate," past a woman threatening to "poison" her, past crosses, placards and props designed to terrify her, including a baby-sized coffin displaying a black doll.

        Worse than the physical threats was the isolation, Bridges says. When the school's white parents pulled their children out in protest, she was left alone day after day with her white, Boston born teacher, Barbara Henry. The liberal minded Henry was the only one to alleviate that loneliness, Bridges said.

        "Having the white teacher was absolutely new. She was whit, but she was different. If I hadn't had her to compare the others to, maybe I be a different person." 

        By her actions, Ruby helped create the first desegregated regated school in the deep south.. After a few months of protest, white children slowly began to return to the school. A year later, Bridges entered Grade two without escort, joining a class with white and black children.

        Today, children aren't as isolated by racism as she was, Bridges said, but they are still caught up in a tornado of someone else's design. "I think they feel like they're in the midst of it and they don't understand it."

        Bridges herself couldn't understand the anger directed at her until much later, when a young boy told her he couldn't play with her because she was a "nigger." "Racism is an adult disease. We should stop using our kids to spread it." 

        That's why the image of Ruby Bridges ringed by the hatred of adults - committed to canvas in 1964 by legendary American artist Norman Rockwell - is so powerful and so enduring and that's why Bridges begins her talk with a one-minute film clip of herself, walking past the crowd and into the school.

        Bridges speaks of the "new" segregation of inner-city schools, both in Canada and the United States, where poverty has created ghettoes. Ironically, her own William Frantz school, where white once fought to keep blacks out, is now a mostly black, mostly poor school, riddled with inner-city problems. Bridges works there as a volunteer.

        "We as adults have to create the environment that brings these kids together," she says, adding that during her talks to children, she wants them to feel free to discuss a subject which is often taboo at home.

        "The best ammunition we can give kids is to tell them they are in a unique position," she said.

        "They can do something that we as adults haven't been seen to get past yet. They can change the world."

        Her audience offers several rounds of applause and shows no signs of boredom after an hour and a half, nor does Bridges. As she's surrounded by the youngsters, she looks happy for the company.

The Toronto Star - May 25, 2000

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