Ruby Today
Ruby's courageous act didn't happen that long ago! Ruby is alive and well and still involved in promoting equity and equality in education. She believes that racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it.
Ruby with some of the students who started the movement toward Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day.
Photo Credit: NBC Bay Area
Lucille Bridges, Mother Of Ruby Bridges, Dies At 86
Ruby Bridges' mother passed away on November 10, 2020.
View a condolence card from students and teachers
"Today our country lost a hero. Brave, progressive, a champion for change. She helped alter the course of so many lives by setting me out on my path as a six year old little girl. Our nation lost a Mother of the Civil Rights Movement today. And I lost my mom. I love you and am grateful for you. May you Rest In Peace," wrote Ruby Bridges, who was memorialized in an iconic painting by Norman Rockwell depicting her, notebook and ruler in hand and accompanied by burly marshals, walking past a wall scrawled with a racial epithet.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement Tuesday night that Lucille Bridges is "one of the mothers of the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans." She said the city mourns her loss.
"Lucille insisted, seeing the action as an opportunity to help all Black children, and walked Ruby, with federal marshals, past chanting and taunting white protesters and to the schoolhouse," Cantrell said. "Mother and daughter both revealed their character and courage." ~ NPR