Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges Brings Message of Acceptance & Hope to NU
Ruby Bridges, the civil rights icon who in 1960 broke racial barriers in education when she became the first African-American to attend an all-white elementary school, shared her experiences Jan. 31 as part of Niagara University’s annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.
Bridges was 6 years old when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school on Nov. 14, 1960. After being escorted to school by her mother and four federal marshals, Bridges spent the entire day in the principal’s office of William Frantz Elementary as irate parents marched into the school to remove their children.
“There were so many people on the street outside on my first day of school that I thought we got stuck in a Mardi Gras party,” Bridges told the assemblage inside the Russell J. Salvatore Dining Commons at NU. “Over 500 kids walked out of school that day – and that was because I was there.”