Ruby Nell Bridges: a Life of Courage and Achievement

Throughout this essay, one will come to find that all five ecological systems are present. Whether it be the microsystem of Ruby and her family, how she was treated among peers at school, or the mesosystem relating to her parents connection with Ruby's teacher at the white school, the exosystem between her father's fears and treatment by whites pushed onto Ruby or her mother, the macrosystem of the all African-American street Ruby lived on or the school she attended before the white school and finally the chronosystem where Ruby and her parent's connected with the NAACP as well as the U.S. Marshals (government), these will all be talked about below.

Ruby Nell Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 in Tylertown, Mississippi. Her parents were sharecroppers, people who rented land and instead of paying with money, they paid with crops. In 1958, Ruby's family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, and lived on a heavily populated African-American block. Her mother did various night jobs, while her father was a service station attendant and by the time she was 6, she had many brothers and sisters. Her job was to watch them, and she did a pretty good job. Ruby Bridges' life really didn't include anything off her block, but that was all about to change.

When Ruby was 5 years old, she started kindergarten at Johnson Lockett Elementary School. Ruby's school was all black, and she had many friends. In the spring of 1960, the government decided to force two white schools' to integrate and Johnson Lockett was to test their kindergarteners to see if they could make it in white schools. So, Lucille dressed up Ruby in her Sunday finest and took her uptown, to the school board room and waited to be tested. That summer, several people from NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) came to her house and told Ruby's parents that she had passed to test and was to go to William Frantz Elementary School. It was closer and better than Johnson Lockett. Ruby really didn't understand what was going on, but she was going to.

On November 14th, 1960, Ruby Bridges was ready to go to her new school. William Frantz Elementary School was an all white school, and many people were in an outrage because it was being integrated. In fact, the day school started was pushed back because government officials found a way to slow down the process. On that Sunday before she went, her mother said, "There might be a lot of people outside the school, but you don't need to be afraid. I'll be with you." On that November morning, many federal marshals showed up at her door, saying they were to escort her to her new school. When they got to William Frantz, a huge mob of people were outside the school. The mob was shouting things, and holding unpleasant signs. After Ruby finished her 1st grade school year, she had slowly gotten used to the whole fiasco, and she went through school with the same respect as she had in 1st grade. It did get better, throughout her career; she finished high school and became a flight attendant.

When Ruby got older, she had done many things to help the Civil Rights Movement. She had established a foundation called "The Ruby Bridges Foundation" and its motto is "RACISM is a grown-up disease. Lets STOP using kids to spread it." The foundation exists to encourage people to stop being racist and stop the injustices from happening again. Ruby also showed the world that anyone, even a little six year old, can stand up to racism and don't ever doubt that if you have a big enough passion for something, you can make a difference. Ruby Bridges is an American hero in so many ways. She had showed to the world that African-Americans are just as good as white people. She stood up to racism, non-violently, and she was very brave at six years old