At Syracuse University’s 36th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, civil rights activist Ruby Bridges discussed how her experience attending an all-white school as a Black student in the 1960s inspired her life-long fight against racism and injustice. 

Bridges, also a bestselling author, is best-known for being the first Black student to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. Spectrum TV news anchor Devon Patton led a Q&A session with Bridges during the virtual celebration. 

Since desegregating her elementary school, Bridges has written multiple books and founded the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which aims to teach tolerance and respect toward all people. 

“Racism is passed on from generation to generation,” Bridges said. “I felt early on that I needed to work with kids. I needed to get them very young, as young as I was.”  

“I guess that 6-year-old Ruby is still inside of me saying, ‘If you explain it to them the right way, they’ll understand that racism has no place in their hearts and in their minds,’ and that was my hope.” 

Bridges described her 6-year-old self unexpectedly facing an angry mob screaming and throwing things as four United States Marshals escorted her into her school building. 

Once inside, she was taken to the principal’s office, where she remained for the rest of the day because of the mass number of parents who pulled their children — more than 500 of them — out of school, she said. 

On the second day, she described an even larger crowd, almost double in size from the day before, assembled in front of the school. 

“I remember the Marshals saying, ‘Ruby, walk straight ahead and don’t look back,’” she said.

The silence inside the building was in complete contradiction to the walk in, she said. She recalled the halls being so quiet and empty that she heard each footstep. She remembered being frightened of the teacher, Mrs. Henry, because she looked the same as the people screaming in front of the school; however, Bridges soon realized this was not the case.

“I think at 6-years-old I learned the lesson that Dr. King tried to teach all of us,” Bridges said. “That you cannot look at a person and judge them by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And I learned that lesson at 6 from Mrs. Henry, who was a white woman, who really made me feel safe in that empty school building the entire year.”

Although she feels frustrated at the persisting racial injustice that exists today, Bridges said she finds hope in the fact that change is possible. 

Remembering the sacrifices and determination of her ancestors and King motivates Bridges to continue her work because she can see that the sacrifices they endured helped ensure where we are today, she said. 

“There were times when our ancestors were hung from trees, and I remember my grandmother saying there were times when people could not even go out to cut their loved ones down from the trees until those people were gone,” she said.

The celebration also included pre-recorded spoken word and musical performances at Hendricks Chapel, as well as presentations by Chancellor Kent Syverud, Patton and SU senior Sean Dorcellus. 

Syeisha Byrd, the director of engagement programs at Hendricks Chapel, honored the four recipients of the 2021 Unsung Heroes Award: Bobbierre Heard, who founded BREKY clothing and partnered with Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital to create a program helping children with disabilities; Frederick Gilbeaux, a Syracuse dentist; late SU professor Evan Weissman; and SU senior Sameeha Saied.

Published on February 1, 2021 at 1:20 am

Contact Kailey: kmnorusi@syr.edu