The Courage to Challenge Racial Injustice and Build Equity in Education: A Conversation with Ruby Bridges

Social Justice Academy Professional Development Series Fall 2024 Series

A Conversation with Ruby Bridges in recognition of the 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

Co-moderated by Vernon Smith, Ph.D., and Zaneta Rago-Craft, Ed.D.

Co-sponsored with the Monmouth University Intercultural Center

Ruby Bridges is a civil rights icon, activist, author, and speaker who at the age of 6 was the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school alone in Louisiana. She 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 family later moved to New Orleans, where on Nov. 14, 1960, Bridges began attending William Frantz Elementary School, single-handedly initiating the desegregation of public education. Her walk to the front door of the school was immortalized in Norman Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With”, in Robert Coles’ book “The Story of Ruby Bridges”, and in the Disney movie “Ruby Bridges”.

She established the Ruby Bridges Foundation to provide leadership training programs that inspire youth and community leaders to embrace and value the richness of diversity. Bridges is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NAACP Martin Luther King Award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and honorary doctorate degrees from Connecticut College, College of New Rochelle, Columbia University Teachers College, and Tulane University. Bridges is also the author of “Through My Eyes”, “This Is Your Time”, “I Am Ruby Bridges”, and “Dear Ruby, Hear Our Hearts”, released in January 2024. In March 2024, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.