tHE FIRST DAY
"I remember looking out of the car as we pulled up to the Frantz school. There were barricades and people shouting and policemen everywhere. I thought maybe it was Mardi Gras, the carnival that takes place in New Orleans every year."
"When the first day of school rolled around in September, Bridges 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."
Ruby Bridges; Age 6. 1960. Louisiana. Web.
"I remember looking out of the car as we pulled up to the Frantz school. There were barricades and people shouting and policemen everywhere. I thought maybe it was Mardi Gras, the carnival that takes place in New Orleans every year. Mardi Gras was always noisy. As we walked through the crowd, I didn't see any faces. I guess that's because I wasn't very tall and I was surrounded by the marshals. People yelled and threw things. I could see the school building, and it looked bigger and nicer than my old school. When we climbed the high steps to the front door, there were policemen in uniforms at the top. The policemen at the door and the crowd behind us made me think this was an important place. It must be collage, I thought to myself." When walking in to William Frantz, there was a large crowd of protesters waiting for Bridges with the media. During an interview with PBS, Bridges recalled "Protesters spat at us and shouted things like, 'Go home nigger', and, 'No niggers allowed here'. One woman screamed at me, 'I'm going to poison you. I'll find a way.' That lady made the same threat every morning. I tried not to pay attention." Protests of Ruby Bridges. 1964. Louisina. Web.
"Protesters spat at us and shouted things like, 'Go home nigger', and, 'No niggers allowed here'. One woman screamed at me, 'I'm going to poison you. I'll find a way.' That lady made the same threat every morning. I tried not to pay attention." "When we left school that first day, the crowd outside was even bigger and louder than it had been in the morning. There were reporters and film cameras and people everywhere. I guess the police couldn't keep them behind the barricades. It seemed to take us a long time to get to the marshals car. Later on I learned there had been protesters in front of the two integrated schools the whole day. They wanted to be sure white parents would boycott the school and not let their children attend. Groups of high school boys, joining the protesters, paraded up and down the street and sang new verses to old hymns. There favorite was "Battle Hymn of the republic" in which they changed the chorus to "Glory, Glory, segregation, the south will rise again." Many of the boys carried signs and said awful things, but most of all I remember seeing a black doll in a coffin, which frightened me more than anything else. .... That afternoon I taught my friends the chant I had learned: "Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate." My friend and I didn't know what the words meant, but we would jump rope to it every day after school."
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Front Page of The Louisiana Weekly. 1960. The Louisiana Weekly, Louisiana. Web.
On the morning of November 14, 1960, four federal marshals drove Ruby Bridges and her mother to William Frantz Elementary, originally an all-white elementary school. "I saw four serious-looking white men, dressed in suits and wearing arm bands. They were U.S federal marshals. They had come to drive us to school and stay with us all day. I learned later that they were carrying guns. I remember climbing into the back seat of the marshal's car with my mother, but I don't remember feeling frightened. William Frantz Public school was only five blocks away, so one of the marshals in the front seat told my mother right away what exactly what we should do when we got there. "let us get out of the car first" the marshal said. " then you'll get out, and the four of us will surround you and your daughter. We'll walk up to the door together. Just walk straight ahead, and don't look back." When we were near the school, my mother said, "Ruby, I want you to behave yourself today and do what the marshals say." Left: Ruby Bridges Walking to William Frantz Elementary. 1960. Louisina. Web.
Right: Ruby Bridges Being Driven to William Frantz. 1964. Louisiana. Web. "There were barricades and people shouting and policemen everywhere. I thought maybe it was Mardi Gras, the carnival that takes place in New Orleans every year. Mardi Gras was always noisy." During an interview from February 18, 1997 between Ruby Hall Bridges and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Bridges explained, "I really didn’t realize until I got into the school that something else was going on. Angry parents at that point rushed in and took their kids out of school. And my mother and I sat in–" when Charlayne Hunter-Gault interrupted, "You mean, you sat there as they paraded the other kids out of the school. You saw that?" Ruby Bridges' response was, "Yes. And I didn’t quite understand what was going on, but they seemed very upset, and they were shouting, and pointing at us because we were sitting behind some glass doors." "You and your mother?" asked Charlayne Hunter-Gault. "My mother and I in the principal’s office. And we sat there all day because we were not able to go to class because all of this was going on. So I actually didn’t attend class until the very next day" answered Ruby Bridges. In "Through my eyes", a book written by Bridges, she wrote "All day long, white parents rushed into the office. They were upset. They were arguing and pointing at us. When they took their children to school that morning, the parents hadn't been sure whether William Frantz would be integrated that day or not. After my mother and I arrived, they ran into classrooms and dragged their children out of school. From behind the windows of the office, all I saw was confusion. I told myself that it must be this way in a big school. That whole first day, my mother and I just sat and waited. We didn't talk to anybody. I remember watching a big, round clock on the wall. When it was 3:00 and time to go home, I was glad. I had thought my new school was going to be hard, but the first day was easy."
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Nationwide News
The large crowd of protesters around William Frantz attracted reporters, causing Ruby Bridges integration to become nationwide news. The New York Times wrote "Today, hundreds of city policemen began to assemble in the mixed white and negro residential districts of the two schools as the sun burned down away from the haze of the Mississippi river. Black squad cars cruised slowly through the narrow streets between modest white frame dwellings set among palms, oleanders, and crepe myrtle. Patrolmen in gold-striped uniforms, black boots, and white crash helmets dismounted from motorcycles to direct traffic. Police officials and detectives stationed themselves around the school buildings and inside the halls. deputy federals marshals wearing yellow armbands made a final check and drove to the homes of the four pupils... Some 150 whites, mostly housewives and teenage youths, clustered along the sidewalks across from the William Frantz school when pupils marched in at 8:40 am. One youth chanted, "two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate; eight, six, four, two, we don't want a chigaroo." Forty minutes later, four deputy marshals arrived with a little Negro girl and her mother. They walked hurriedly up the steps and into the yellow brick building while onlookers jeered and shouted taunts. The girl, dressed in stiffly starched white dress with a white ribbon in her hair, gripped her mother's hand tightly and glanced apprehensively toward the crowd."
The large crowd of protesters around William Frantz attracted reporters, causing Ruby Bridges integration to become nationwide news. The New York Times wrote "Today, hundreds of city policemen began to assemble in the mixed white and negro residential districts of the two schools as the sun burned down away from the haze of the Mississippi river. Black squad cars cruised slowly through the narrow streets between modest white frame dwellings set among palms, oleanders, and crepe myrtle. Patrolmen in gold-striped uniforms, black boots, and white crash helmets dismounted from motorcycles to direct traffic. Police officials and detectives stationed themselves around the school buildings and inside the halls. deputy federals marshals wearing yellow armbands made a final check and drove to the homes of the four pupils... Some 150 whites, mostly housewives and teenage youths, clustered along the sidewalks across from the William Frantz school when pupils marched in at 8:40 am. One youth chanted, "two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate; eight, six, four, two, we don't want a chigaroo." Forty minutes later, four deputy marshals arrived with a little Negro girl and her mother. They walked hurriedly up the steps and into the yellow brick building while onlookers jeered and shouted taunts. The girl, dressed in stiffly starched white dress with a white ribbon in her hair, gripped her mother's hand tightly and glanced apprehensively toward the crowd."