Ruby Keeler CANADIAN -AMERICAN ACTRESS 1909 AUGUST 25 - FEBRUARY 28,1993

 

 Ruby Keeler CANADIAN -AMERICAN ACTRESS 

1909 AUGUST 25 - FEBRUARY 28,1993

Ruby Keeler was a beautiful and talented dancer; and audiences responded to her warm personality as much as they did to her fancy footwork. She had begun performing professionally as a young teenager, and by the time she was 20, she had worked on Broadway and married Al Jolson. She landed a contract to make movies at Warner Brothers, where she stayed busy during the 1930s. All of Ruby’s best pictures will be broadcast on TCM August 19th, including the one she and her husband made together.

42ND STREET (1933) is one of Ruby Keeler’s most beloved films. She plays a naive newcomer who wins a part in a stage show and turns the heads of several men. She sings and dances the classic tune ‘Shuffle Off to Buffalo’ as well as the title song. Busby Berkeley choreographed the spectacular musical numbers.

In DAMES (1934), Ruby was paired with Dick Powell, who became her most frequent leading man. Again, she collaborated with Busby Berkeley on the main numbers. The plot is fairly basic– Ruby plays a dancer who falls for a struggling songwriter (Powell). The supporting cast includes other popular Warner Brothers players like Joan Blondell and Guy Kibbee.

In 1935, Ruby and husband Al Jolson headlined the musical GO INTO YOUR DANCE. They were joined by Glenda Farrell and Patsy Kelly. In the story, Jolson is a washed-up Broadway star whose career makes a comeback when he is teamed with a rising hopeful played by Ruby. There is a subplot involving gangsters. Jolson sings ‘About a Quarter to Nine.’

Ruby had a rare non-musical role in 1938, when she was loaned out by Warner Brothers to play one of the leads in RKO’s comedy-drama MOTHER CAREY’S CHICKENS. She was cast as one of Fay Bainter’s daughters and shared scenes with Anne Shirley as her sister. It would be Ruby’s last film for three years, until she returned to the screen in Columbia’s musical SWEETHEART OF THE CAMPUS. And indeed, in all her motion pictures, Ruby Keeler is always a real sweetheart.

INTERVIEW: RUBY KEELER IN 1971

When I interviewed Ruby Keeler for The New York Times in 1971, she admitted she was worried that Broadway audiences might not say “Yes, Yes, Ruby” to her comeback in “No, No, Nanette.” As it turned out, she had absolutely nothing to worry about. --GUY FLATLEY

That woman wincing in pain is the star of the show, a spoiled-rotten dancer who has finally been floored by a fracture of the ankle. The other girl, the one twisting her hanky and rolling her eyes heavenward, is the sweetest kid in the chorus and she has been chosen to step in for the fallen star. On opening night. It’s enough to give a girl the jitters, and it does. How on earth is she ever going to memorize all those lines and master those devilish dance steps?

The year was 1933, the movie was “42d Street,” the slave-driving director was played by Warner Baxter (seen above pointing at the sweet kid's leg). And making her movie debut as the humble hoofer who came back a star was Ruby Keeler, in real life the young bride of the beaming Al Jolson.

“It was a funny line, wasn’t it?” Miss Keeler laughs, remembering her classic scene with Warner Baxter. She wasn’t laughing then, however. “I was scared to death. That’s me, I guess. I’m scared to death now.”

The reason that Ruby Keeler is scared to death now is that she will soon have to go out there and come back a star again. This time for real, on the real Broadway stage. The show, a revival of Vincent Youmans’ 1925 hit “No, No, Nanette,” has been a surprise smash out of town, with the warmest applause going to Miss Keeler, who stars as the sunny, tap-dancing aunt of Nanette.

“I’ve been away a long time,” she says, biting her lip and nodding to one of her fans in the genteel dining room of Boston’s Barclay Hotel. Ruby, a youthful 60, is still pretty, with bright blue eyes, soft gray-blonde hair, and shapely legs.

“My last show on Broadway was ‘Show Girl’ in 1929,” she says. “This is a big step for me, and a frightening one. And yet it’s a wonderful thing to have happened to a woman of my age, just at this time – when I’m sort of lost. My husband – Lord love his soul – died two years ago. We had been married 27 years. It had been John’s first marriage, though I don’t know why – he was so handsome that all the gals liked him. Once I became Mrs. John Lowe, it never entered my mind to be anything else. Not that I hated the movies I had been doing. I enjoyed them; but I always felt there had to be more to life.”

Ruby’s husband, a socially prominent broker, built a large house in Newport Beach, south of Los Angeles. “Not a showplace – well, yes, it was a showplace, but comfortable, lived-in. We had a stable and a few horses. Then, when John died, my friends urged me to sell the house. All five of our children are grown now, and there is so much work that needs to be done around a large house. John had always loved keeping things just right, and I wasn’t able to do that. It killed me to sell that house. I had to sell the horses too, but I couldn’t bear to watch when the men came to take them away. I had seen them as babies.”

Then, out of the blue, producer Harry Rigby called with the “No, No, Nanette” offer. Her name had been suggested by Busby Berkeley, the show’s 75-year-old “production supervisor” and the wizard who had sent Ruby reeling through some of her most lavish Hollywood dance numbers. So now she is bound for Broadway, where she had been rated a hot new talent before she decided to shuffle off to Hollywood with Al Jolson.

“When I was 13, I was dancing at Texas Guinan’s. It was during Prohibition, so it must have been a speakeasy. But we called it a night club. It was small, but I guess anybody who was anybody went to the Guinan club. All the stars. I remember Miss Guinan as a very large and very wonderful woman, warm and kind to us and always singing.”

In 1927, Flo Ziegfeld, who had spotted Ruby tapping her toes and tossing her curls in a musical called “Lucky,” summoned her to his office and signed her up for “Whoopee,” with Eddie Cantor. “I went on tour with the show,” Ruby says softly, “but I didn’t get to New York, even though I received nice reviews. You see, I got married in Pittsburgh and Mr. Jolson, who should have known better, said, ‘Ruby, I want you to come to California with me.’ ‘But what will I do about the show?’ I asked. ‘Better come to California with me, Ruby,’ he said. And so I did, which wasn’t a very nice thing for me to do to Mr. Ziegfeld.”

Ruby’s marriage to Jolson, which ended in divorce, is not one of her favorite subjects. “I really prefer not talking about my life with Al. It’s not that it was an overnight thing; we were married 11 years. It’s just that my life since then – my husband, my children – has been so full that what came before seems an entirely different life.”

When Hollywood got around to making “The Jolson Story” in 1946, they called Ruby and asked her permission to portray her marriage to Jolson. “‘I would rather you not do that,’ I said. They said, ‘O.K., we’ll call you Pearl or Julie.’ I never saw the movie, but I hear it was good. Al was a great entertainer. I do not know that some of the things in the movie were true. When I opened on Broadway in ‘Show Girl,’ Al did stand up in the audience and sing. But not because I was about to faint, as the movie apparently made it seem, but because Al liked to sing and when he felt like singing, he sang.”

When Ruby’s second marriage took place in a Catholic church, some cynics sneered. “People thought the church was showing favoritism, but they didn’t understand. Al and I were married by a justice of the peace, even though Al’s father was a cantor and one of the most truly religious men I have ever met. So, in the eyes of the church, my marriage to Al was not a blessed marriage. I don’t think Al ever practiced any religion, but he did go to mass with me once or twice. You know, he was very proud of the fact that I continued to go to church. He loved to be able to say to people, ‘Oh, Ruby’s not here now. She’s at mass.’ Of course, I couldn’t receive communion. And though I wasn’t thinking about that at the time of our divorce, the Lord was taking care of me, even then. I could not have gotten back into the church – to receive the sacraments – if I had stayed married to Al.”

Al Jolson may not be one of Ruby’s favorite subjects, but Flo Ziegfeld is. She came back to Broadway – Jolson did not stand in her way this time – in the legendary producer’s “Show Girl,” not long after her “Whoopee” walk-out.

“I’m very proud that I was in a Ziegfeld show. He was a wonderful, wonderful man. I remember once, years after I had retired, one of our mares was having a filly. We knew that she was ready, so we were all out leaning over the fence, watching. Then the mare dropped this white, white buckskin. Skinny white legs in long black stockings, and about six long lashes on each eye. ‘She’s beautiful!’ I said. ‘She looks just like a Ziegfeld girl. We’ll have to name her after Mr. Ziegfeld.’ ‘Who’s that?’ the kids wanted to know. ‘Never mind,’ I said. ‘We must call her Ziggy.’ And we did.

“As the kids got older, they realized that I had been in the movies, and on the stage. Every once in a while, they would hear me mention Mr. Ziegfeld, but it didn’t mean much to them. Then Kathleen went to see ‘Funny Girl,’ and when she came home, she said, ‘Mom, did you really know Flo Ziegfeld?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Did you call him Flo?’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘Well,’ Kathleen said, ‘Barbra Streisand called him Flo!’”

Ruby enjoys an enviable rapport with her children. “Oh, we’ve had our arguments but, basically, we all feel alike. The one thing that frightens me about so many young people today is this dope thing. I’m terribly against marijuana. Kathleen and I were talking about it not long ago. I hope and pray that she doesn’t smoke it. I said to her, ‘Kathleen, how many of your friends smoke marijuana?’ ‘A great many,’ she said. And me, with my Irish, I said, ‘Well, don’t you bring those friends in this house!’ ‘Mom,’ she said, ‘you don’t understand. What about all those cocktail parties you older people go to?’ ‘But a person doesn’t go to a cocktail party to get drunk,’ I said. ‘You have a couple of drinks and you leave.’ I truly think that kids are being brainwashed with this idea that marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol. How many 14-year-olds have you seen lying drunk in the gutter? Yet they start so young on drugs. It’s as if they just can’t wait to destroy themselves.”

 

One of Ruby’s sons is a Vietnam veteran. “When Johnny was in Vietnam, I was terribly worried. I’d hear reports on the news, names of places being attacked, and I would wonder, ‘Is Johnny there, with the mortars hitting all around him?’ Johnny isn’t for the war, but he feels that even if it is a mistake for us to be there, we are there and the boys should have more support. He was all for President Nixon’s Cambodian move, but he doesn’t go screaming up and down the street, waving a flag. Just before we left California, a package came for him. He opened it and inside was a Bronze Star. ‘Johnny!’ I said. ‘How did you get that? What did you do to earn it? Why didn’t you tell me you won a Bronze Star?’ ‘Well, Mom,’ he said, ‘I wasn’t sure the package was ever going to get here.’ That was all he said. But, the Bronze Star – they don’t give that to everybody, do they?”

Johnny is now the assistant stage manager of “No, No, Nanette,” and Ruby’s sister Gertrude is serving as her secretary. “We were always a close family. When I went to Hollywood, I took my mother, my father and my three sisters with me. My sisters were in the chorus of ‘42d Street.’ They were Busby Berkeley girls. Gertrude still does extras.”

Ruby is relieved that in “No, No, Nanette” she can put her best foot forward and leave the carrying of tunes to others. She will have one duet with Jack Gilford, but that will be a patter song. “I can talk a song, I just can’t sing. One thing that was difficult for me at first was learning lines again. I still walk up and down backstage thinking, ‘Now, what are my lines in this next scene?’ I never really had a lot of lines to learn before, especially on stage. I’m not an actress. You certainly can’t call what I did on the screen acting.

“When I began rehearsing for the show, my legs were...well, I was like a runner who hadn’t raced for a long time. But having Busby there helped. Some people said to me, ‘Don’t do it, Ruby,’ when they heard I was going to go out there and dance. But, so far, I think it’s working out all right. Who knows – maybe some night it won’t. My three daughters came on opening night in Boston. It was the first time they’d seen me perform. They’ve seen my movies on television, but they’re looking at a young girl in those pictures, not their mother. Now the kids say a prayer for me before matinees. If all goes well, I’ll have them come to New York for the opening.

“I am apprehensive about the Broadway opening, but the fact that we’ve been so well received all along the way does generate some excitement, don’t you think? The audiences have been having fun; in the ‘I Want to Be Happy’ number at the end, they’re smiling and singing and swaying along with us. It’s like having a party in your own living room. I’ve prayed as much as anybody that they’ll like us in New York, too. Especially for the sake of the kids in the show. It’s their careers.

“It’s different for me,” Ruby says, brushing a curl from her face and smiling the smile of the sweetest kid in the chorus. “I can always go home.”

Ruby Keeler died on February 28,1993 at the age of 82...

 

 

சுவைக்க வாய்ப்புக் கிடைத்தவர்கள் உண்மையாகவே பாக்யவான்கள்!

RUBY BRIDGES ,FIRST STEP INTO SCHOOL AGAINST RACISM IN AMERICA ON 1960 NOVEMBER 14

RUBY BRIDGES ,FIRST STEP INTO SCHOOL AGAINST RACISM IN AMERICA 

ON 1960 NOVEMBER 14

Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South.

“My message is really that racism has no place in the hearts and minds of our children.”
—Ruby Bridges
Synopsis

Born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, Ruby Bridges was 6 when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school, having to be escorted to class by her mother and U.S. marshals due to violent mobs. Bridges' bravery paved the way for continued Civil Rights action and she's shared her story with future generations in educational forums.

Early Life

Ruby Nell Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, and grew up on the farm her parents and grandparents sharecropped in Mississippi. When she was 4 years old, her parents, Abon and Lucille Bridges, moved to New Orleans, hoping for a better life in a bigger city. Her father got a job as a gas station attendant and her mother took night jobs to help support their growing family. Soon, young Ruby had two younger brothers and a younger sister.

The fact that Ruby Bridges was born the same year that the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision desegregated the schools is a notable coincidence in her early journey into civil rights activism. When Ruby was in kindergarten, she was one of many African-American students in New Orleans who were chosen to take a test determining whether or not she could attend a white school. It is said the test was written to be especially difficult so that students would have a hard time passing. The idea was that if all the African-American children failed the test, New Orleans schools might be able to stay segregated for a while longer. Ruby lived a mere five blocks from an all-white school, but attended kindergarten several miles away, at an all-black segregated school.

Her father was averse to his daughter taking the test, believing that if she passed and was allowed to go to the white school, there would be trouble. Her mother, Lucille, however, pressed the issue, believing that Ruby would get a better education at a white school. She was eventually able to convince Ruby's father to let her take the test.

Escorted by Federal Marshals

In 1960, Ruby Bridges' parents were informed by officials from the NAACP that she was one of only six African-American students to pass the test. Ruby would be the only African-American student to attend the William Frantz School, near her home, and the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. When the first day of school rolled around in September, Ruby was still at her old school. All through the summer and early fall, the Louisiana State Legislature had found ways to fight the federal court order and slow the integration process. After exhausting all stalling tactics, the Legislature had to relent, and the designated schools were to be integrated that November. Fearing there might be some civil disturbances, the federal district court judge requested the U.S. government send federal marshals to New Orleans to protect the children.

On the morning of November 14, 1960, federal marshals drove Ruby and her mother five blocks to her new school. While in the car, one of the men explained that when they arrived at the school, two marshals would walk in front of Ruby and two would be behind her. The image of this small black girl being escorted to school by four large white men inspired Norman Rockwell to create the painting "The Problem We All Must Live With," which graced the cover of Look magazine in 1964.

When Ruby and the federal marshals arrived at the school, large crowds of people were gathered in front yelling and throwing objects. There were barricades set up, and policemen were everywhere. Ruby, in her innocence, first believed it was like a Mardi Gras celebration. When she entered the school under the protection of the federal marshals, she was immediately escorted to the principal's office and spent the entire day there. The chaos outside, and the fact that nearly all the white parents at the school had kept their children home, meant classes weren't going to be held.

Ostracized at School

On her second day, the circumstances were much the same as the first, and for a while it looked like Ruby Bridges wouldn't be able to attend class. Only one teacher, Barbara Henry, agreed to teach Ruby. She was from Boston and a new teacher to the school. "Mrs. Henry," as Ruby would call her even as an adult, greeted her with open arms. Ruby was the only student in Henry's class, because parents pulled or threatened to pull their children from Ruby's class and send them to other schools. For a full year, Henry and Ruby sat side by side at two desks, working on Ruby's lessons. Henry was very loving and supportive of Ruby, helping her not only with her studies but also with the difficult experience of being ostracized.

Ruby Bridges' first few weeks at Frantz School were not easy ones. Several times she was confronted with blatant racism in full view of her federal escorts. On her second day of school, a woman threatened to poison her. After this, the federal marshals allowed her to only eat food from home. On another day, she was "greeted" by a woman displaying a black doll in a wooden coffin. Ruby's mother kept encouraging her to be strong and pray while entering the school, which Ruby discovered reduced the vehemence of the insults yelled at her and gave her courage. She spent her entire day, every day, in Mrs. Henry's classroom, not allowed to go to the cafeteria or out to recess to be with other students in the school. When she had to go to the restroom, the federal marshals walked her down the hall. Several years later, federal marshal Charles Burks, one of her escorts, commented with some pride that Ruby showed a lot of courage. She never cried or whimpered, Burks said, "She just marched along like a little soldier."

Effect on the Bridges Family

The abuse wasn't limited to only Ruby Bridges; her family suffered as well. Her father lost his job at the filling station, and her grandparents were sent off the land they had sharecropped for over 25 years. The grocery store where the family shopped banned them from entering. However, many others in the community, both black and white, began to show support in a variety of ways. Gradually, many families began to send their children back to the school and the protests and civil disturbances seemed to subside as the year went on. A neighbor provided Ruby's father with a job, while others volunteered to babysit the four children, watch the house as protectors, and walk behind the federal marshals on the trips to school.

After winter break, Ruby began to show signs of stress. She experienced nightmares and would wake her mother in the middle of the night seeking comfort. For a time, she stopped eating lunch in her classroom, which she usually ate alone. Wanting to be with the other students, she would not eat the sandwiches her mother packed for her, but instead hid them in a storage cabinet in the classroom. Soon, a janitor discovered the mice and cockroaches who had found the sandwiches. The incident led Mrs. Henry to lunch with Ruby in the classroom.

Ruby started seeing child psychologist Dr. Robert Coles, who volunteered to provide counseling during her first year at Frantz School. He was very concerned about how such a young girl would handle the pressure. He saw Ruby once a week either at school or at her home. During these sessions, he would just let her talk about what she was experiencing. Sometimes his wife came too and, like Dr. Coles, she was very caring toward Ruby. Coles later wrote a series of articles for Atlantic Monthly and eventually a series of books on how children handle change, including a children's book on Ruby's experience.

Overcoming Obstacles

Near the end of the first year, things began to settle down. A few white children in Ruby's grade returned to the school. Occasionally, Ruby got a chance to visit with them. By her own recollection many years later, Ruby was not that aware of the extent of the racism that erupted over her attending the school. But when another child rejected Ruby's friendship because of her race, she began to slowly understand.

By Ruby's second year at Frantz School it seemed everything had changed. Mrs. Henry's contract wasn't renewed, and so she and her husband returned to Boston. There were also no more federal marshals; Ruby walked to school every day by herself. There were other students in her second grade class, and the school began to see full enrollment again. No one talked about the past year. It seemed everyone wanted to put the experience behind them.

Ruby Bridges finished grade school, and graduated from the integrated Francis T. Nicholls High School in New Orleans. She then studied travel and tourism at the Kansas City business school and worked for American Express as a world travel agent. In 1984, Ruby married Malcolm Hall in New Orleans, and later became a full-time parent to their four sons.

Recent Contributions

In 1993, Ruby Bridges' youngest brother, Malcolm Bridges, was murdered in a drug-related killing. For a time, Ruby looked after Malcolm's four children, who attended William Frantz School. She began to volunteer at the school three days a week and soon became a parent-community liaison. The coincidence of all this, to have her brother's death bring her back to her elementary school where so much had taken place, didn't escape Ruby, but she wasn't sure why all this happened. In 1995, she got her answer. Robert Coles, Bridges' child psychologist, published a children's book on his time with her, entitled The Story of Ruby Bridges. Soon after, Barbara Henry, her teacher that first year at Frantz School, contacted Bridges and they were reunited on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

With Bridges' experience as liaison at the school, and her reconnection with influential people in her past, she began to see a need for bringing parents back into the schools to take a more active role in their children's education. In 1999, Bridges formed the Ruby Bridges Foundation, headquartered in New Orleans. The foundation promotes the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences. Through education and inspiration, the foundation seeks to end racism and prejudice. As its motto goes, "Racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it." In 2007, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis unveiled a new exhibition documenting Bridges' life, along with the lives of Anne Frank and Ryan White.

RUBY BRIDGES ,FIRST STEP INTO SCHOOL AGAINST RACISM IN AMERICA ON 1960 NOVEMBER 14

RUBY BRIDGES ,FIRST STEP INTO SCHOOL AGAINST

RACISM IN AMERICA ON 1960 NOVEMBER 14

Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American activist known for being the first black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960

Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges in 2010
Born	September 8, 1954 (age 62) Tylertown, Mississippi, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Philanthropist Activist
Website	www.rubybridges.com[dead link]

Early life

Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, to Abon and Lucille Bridges. When she was 4 years old, the family relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1960, when she was 6 years old, her parents responded to a request from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and volunteered her to participate in the integration of the New Orleans school system, even though her father was hesitant.

Integration

In spring of 1960, Bridges was one of six black children in New Orleans to pass the test that determined whether they could go to the all-white school. Two of the six decided to stay at their old school, Bridges went to a school by herself, and three children were transferred to McDonogh No. 19 and became known as the McDonogh Three.

William Frantz Elementary School building in 2010

William Frantz Elementary School building in 2010

Ruby's father was initially reluctant, but her mother felt strongly that the move was needed not only to give her own daughter a better education, but to "take this step forward ... for all African-American children." Her mother finally convinced her father to let her go to the school.[4]

Judge J. Skelly Wright's court order for the first day of integrated schools in New Orleans on November 14, 1960 was commemorated by Norman Rockwell in the painting, The Problem We All Live With (published in Look magazine on January 14, 1964).[5] As Bridges describes it, "Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras.

There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras."[5] Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, "She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn't whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we're all very very proud of her."[6]

U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school

U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school

As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Ruby and that was Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, and for over a year Henry taught her alone, "as if she were teaching a whole class."

That first day, Bridges and her adult companions spent the entire day in the principal's office; the chaos of the school prevented their moving to the classroom until the second day. On the second day, however, a white student broke the boycott and entered the school when a 34-year-old Methodist minister, Lloyd Anderson Foreman, walked his 5-year-old daughter Pam through the angry mob, saying, "I simply want the privilege of taking my child to school...." A few days later, other white parents began bringing their children, and the protests began to subside.[2]

[7] Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her;[8] because of this, the U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, allowed Ruby to eat only the food that she brought from home.
Another woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges Hall has said "scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us." At her mother's suggestion, Bridges began to pray on the way to school, which she found provided protection from the comments yelled at her on the daily walks.[9]

Child psychiatrist Robert Coles volunteered to provide counseling to Bridges during her first year at Frantz. He met with her weekly in the Bridges home, later writing a children's book, The Story of Ruby Bridges, to acquaint other children with Bridges' story.

The Bridges family suffered for their decision to send her to William Frantz Elementary: her father lost his job, the grocery store the family shopped at would no longer let them shop there, and her grandparents, who were sharecroppers in Mississippi, were turned off their land.

She has noted that many others in the community, both black and white, showed support in a variety of ways. Some white families continued to send their children to Frantz despite the protests, a neighbor provided her father with a new job, and local people babysat, watched the house as protectors, and walked behind the federal marshals' car on the trips to school.[5][10]

Adult life

Ruby Bridges speaking at Texas A&M University–Commerce in February 2015

Ruby Bridges speaking at Texas A&M University–Commerce in February 2015
Bridges, now Ruby Bridges Hall, still lives in New Orleans with her husband, Malcolm Hall, and their four sons.[11] For 15 years Hall worked as a travel agent, later becoming a full-time parent. She is now chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which she formed in 1999 to promote "the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences." Describing the mission of the group, she says, "racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it."[12]

In 1993, Bridges Hall began looking after her recently orphaned nieces, then attending William Frantz Elementary as their aunt had before them. She began to volunteer as a parent liaison three days a week. Eventually, publicity related to Coles' book caused reporters to locate Bridges Hall and write stories about her volunteer work at the school, which in turn led to a reunion with her former teacher, Barbara Henry. Henry and Bridges Hall now sometimes make joint appearances in schools in connection with the Bridges Foundation.[13]

Bridges Hall is the subject of the Lori McKenna song "Ruby's Shoes". Her childhood struggle at William Frantz Elementary School was portrayed in the 1998 made-for-TV movie Ruby Bridges. The young Ruby Bridges was portrayed by actress Chaz Monet, and the movie also featured Lela Rochon as Ruby's mother, Lucille 'Lucy' Bridges; Michael Beach as Ruby's father, Abon Bridges; Penelope Ann Miller as Ruby's teacher, Mrs. Henry; and Kevin Pollak as Dr. Robert Coles.

On January 8, 2001, Bridges Hall was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton.[14]

Like hundreds of thousands of others in the greater New Orleans area, Bridges Hall lost her home (in Eastern New Orleans) to the catastrophic flooding in the failure of the levee system during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In October 2006, the Alameda Unified School District dedicated a new elementary school to Ruby Bridges, and issued a proclamation in her honor.
In November 2006 she was honored in the Anti-Defamation League's Concert Against Hate.

In 2007 the Children's Museum of Indianapolis unveiled a new exhibit documenting her life, along with the lives of Anne Frank and Ryan White.
In 2010, she had a 50th year reunion at Frantz Elementary with Pam Foreman Testroet, who, at age five, was the first white child to break the boycott that ensued from Bridges' attendance at that school.[2]

Bridges continues to tour as an inspirational speaker against racism. In 2011, she visited St. Paul's Episcopal School, a K-8 school in Oakland, CA. Her visit coincided with the unveiling of the Remember Them humanitarian monument by Mario Chiodo, which includes a sculpture of the young Ruby Bridges.

On July 15, 2011, Bridges met with President Barack Obama at the White House, and while viewing the Norman Rockwell painting of her on display he told her, "I think it's fair to say that if it hadn't been for you guys, I might not be here and we wouldn't be looking at this together."[15]

On May 19, 2012, Bridges Hall received an Honorary Degree from Tulane University at the annual graduation ceremony at the Superdome.
In 2014, a statue of Bridges was unveiled in the courtyard of William Frantz Elementary School.[16]

Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South.
“My message is really that racism has no place in the hearts and minds of our children.”
—Ruby Bridges

Synopsis

Born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, Ruby Bridges was 6 when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school, having to be escorted to class by her mother and U.S. marshals due to violent mobs. Bridges' bravery paved the way for continued Civil Rights action and she's shared her story with future generations in educational forums.
Early Life

Ruby Nell Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, and grew up on the farm her parents and grandparents sharecropped in Mississippi. When she was 4 years old, her parents, Abon and Lucille Bridges, moved to New Orleans, hoping for a better life in a bigger city. Her father got a job as a gas station attendant and her mother took night jobs to help support their growing family. Soon, young Ruby had two younger brothers and a younger sister.
The fact that Ruby Bridges was born the same year that the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision desegregated the schools is a notable coincidence in her early journey into civil rights activism. When Ruby was in kindergarten, she was one of many African-American students in New Orleans who were chosen to take a test determining whether or not she could attend a white school. It is said the test was written to be especially difficult so that students would have a hard time passing. The idea was that if all the African-American children failed the test, New Orleans schools might be able to stay segregated for a while longer. Ruby lived a mere five blocks from an all-white school, but attended kindergarten several miles away, at an all-black segregated school.

Her father was averse to his daughter taking the test, believing that if she passed and was allowed to go to the white school, there would be trouble. Her mother, Lucille, however, pressed the issue, believing that Ruby would get a better education at a white school. She was eventually able to convince Ruby's father to let her take the test.
Escorted by Federal Marshals
In 1960, Ruby Bridges' parents were informed by officials from the NAACP that she was one of only six African-American students to pass the test. Ruby would be the only African-American student to attend the William Frantz School, near her home, and the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. When the first day of school rolled around in September, Ruby was still at her old school. All through the summer and early fall, the Louisiana State Legislature had found ways to fight the federal court order and slow the integration process. After exhausting all stalling tactics, the Legislature had to relent, and the designated schools were to be integrated that November. Fearing there might be some civil disturbances, the federal district court judge requested the U.S. government send federal marshals to New Orleans to protect the children.

On the morning of November 14, 1960, federal marshals drove Ruby and her mother five blocks to her new school. While in the car, one of the men explained that when they arrived at the school, two marshals would walk in front of Ruby and two would be behind her. The image of this small black girl being escorted to school by four large white men inspired Norman Rockwell to create the painting "The Problem We All Must Live With," which graced the cover of Look magazine in 1964.
When Ruby and the federal marshals arrived at the school, large crowds of people were gathered in front yelling and throwing objects. There were barricades set up, and policemen were everywhere. Ruby, in her innocence, first believed it was like a Mardi Gras celebration. When she entered the school under the protection of the federal marshals, she was immediately escorted to the principal's office and spent the entire day there. The chaos outside, and the fact that nearly all the white parents at the school had kept their children home, meant classes weren't going to be held.
Ostracized at School

On her second day, the circumstances were much the same as the first, and for a while it looked like Ruby Bridges wouldn't be able to attend class. Only one teacher, Barbara Henry, agreed to teach Ruby. She was from Boston and a new teacher to the school. "Mrs. Henry," as Ruby would call her even as an adult, greeted her with open arms. Ruby was the only student in Henry's class, because parents pulled or threatened to pull their children from Ruby's class and send them to other schools. For a full year, Henry and Ruby sat side by side at two desks, working on Ruby's lessons. Henry was very loving and supportive of Ruby, helping her not only with her studies but also with the difficult experience of being ostracized.

Ruby Bridges' first few weeks at Frantz School were not easy ones. Several times she was confronted with blatant racism in full view of her federal escorts. On her second day of school, a woman threatened to poison her. After this, the federal marshals allowed her to only eat food from home. On another day, she was "greeted" by a woman displaying a black doll in a wooden coffin. Ruby's mother kept encouraging her to be strong and pray while entering the school, which Ruby discovered reduced the vehemence of the insults yelled at her and gave her courage. She spent her entire day, every day, in Mrs. Henry's classroom, not allowed to go to the cafeteria or out to recess to be with other students in the school. When she had to go to the restroom, the federal marshals walked her down the hall. Several years later, federal marshal Charles Burks, one of her escorts, commented with some pride that Ruby showed a lot of courage. She never cried or whimpered, Burks said, "She just marched along like a little soldier."
Effect on the Bridges Family

The abuse wasn't limited to only Ruby Bridges; her family suffered as well. Her father lost his job at the filling station, and her grandparents were sent off the land they had sharecropped for over 25 years. The grocery store where the family shopped banned them from entering. However, many others in the community, both black and white, began to show support in a variety of ways. Gradually, many families began to send their children back to the school and the protests and civil disturbances seemed to subside as the year went on. A neighbor provided Ruby's father with a job, while others volunteered to babysit the four children, watch the house as protectors, and walk behind the federal marshals on the trips to school.
After winter break, Ruby began to show signs of stress. She experienced nightmares and would wake her mother in the middle of the night seeking comfort. For a time, she stopped eating lunch in her classroom, which she usually ate alone. Wanting to be with the other students, she would not eat the sandwiches her mother packed for her, but instead hid them in a storage cabinet in the classroom. Soon, a janitor discovered the mice and cockroaches who had found the sandwiches. The incident led Mrs. Henry to lunch with Ruby in the classroom.

Ruby started seeing child psychologist Dr. Robert Coles, who volunteered to provide counseling during her first year at Frantz School. He was very concerned about how such a young girl would handle the pressure. He saw Ruby once a week either at school or at her home. During these sessions, he would just let her talk about what she was experiencing. Sometimes his wife came too and, like Dr. Coles, she was very caring toward Ruby. Coles later wrote a series of articles for Atlantic Monthly and eventually a series of books on how children handle change, including a children's book on Ruby's experience.
Overcoming Obstacles

Near the end of the first year, things began to settle down. A few white children in Ruby's grade returned to the school. Occasionally, Ruby got a chance to visit with them. By her own recollection many years later, Ruby was not that aware of the extent of the racism that erupted over her attending the school. But when another child rejected Ruby's friendship because of her race, she began to slowly understand.
By Ruby's second year at Frantz School it seemed everything had changed. Mrs. Henry's contract wasn't renewed, and so she and her husband returned to Boston. There were also no more federal marshals; Ruby walked to school every day by herself. There were other students in her second grade class, and the school began to see full enrollment again. No one talked about the past year. It seemed everyone wanted to put the experience behind them.
Ruby Bridges finished grade school, and graduated from the integrated Francis T. Nicholls High School in New Orleans. She then studied travel and tourism at the Kansas City business school and worked for American Express as a world travel agent. In 1984, Ruby married Malcolm Hall in New Orleans, and later became a full-time parent to their four sons.
Recent Contributions

In 1993, Ruby Bridges' youngest brother, Malcolm Bridges, was murdered in a drug-related killing. For a time, Ruby looked after Malcolm's four children, who attended William Frantz School. She began to volunteer at the school three days a week and soon became a parent-community liaison. The coincidence of all this, to have her brother's death bring her back to her elementary school where so much had taken place, didn't escape Ruby, but she wasn't sure why all this happened. In 1995, she got her answer. Robert Coles, Bridges' child psychologist, published a children's book on his time with her, entitled The Story of Ruby Bridges. Soon after, Barbara Henry, her teacher that first year at Frantz School, contacted Bridges and they were reunited on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

With Bridges' experience as liaison at the school, and her reconnection with influential people in her past, she began to see a need for bringing parents back into the schools to take a more active role in their children's education. In 1999, Bridges formed the Ruby Bridges Foundation, headquartered in New Orleans. The foundation promotes the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences. Through education and inspiration, the foundation seeks to end racism and prejudice. As its motto goes, "Racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it." In 2007, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis unveiled a new exhibition documenting Bridges' life, along with the lives of Anne Frank and Ryan White.