Ruby’s amazing show of strength and courage has profoundly affected education in America today. Ruby Bridges was born in Mississippi in 1954, the same year the United States Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision ordering the integration of public schools. Her parents decided to move to New Orleans because they heard of better opportunities in the city.

In 1960, when Ruby Bridges was only six years old, she became one of the first black children to integrate New Orleans’ all white public school system. Greeted by an angry mob and escorted by federal marshals, Ruby bravely crossed the threshold of this school and into history books by single-highhandedly initiating the desegregation of New Orleans’ public schools and changing the face of education across the country!