Ruby Bridges Thanks Marshal Who Escorted Her To Previously All-White School (Photos at link)

[Tx4obama]

Ruby Bridges Thanks Marshal Who Escorted Her To Previously All-White School (PHOTOS)

INDIANAPOLIS -- Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges, who as a 6-year-old helped end public school segregation in the South, was reunited Thursday with one of the federal marshals who had escorted her past angry crowds so she could attend a previously all-white school.

Bridges, who in 1960 became the first black child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans, met with Charles Burks at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, which was filming the pair for its permanent exhibit called "The Power of Children." Burks, now 91, is the only one of the four marshals who escorted Bridges to and from school who is still alive.

"Thank you Charlie for doing what was right at a time when it might not have been the easiest thing to do," she told Burks.

Burks said escorting Bridges to school was a highlight of his life, adding that he supported the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that struck down segregation in public schools. Bridges was in first-grade when she started attending William Frantz Elementary School on Nov. 14, 1960, as the court-ordered integration of public schools began in New Orleans.

-snip-

Full article and photos here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/ruby-bridges-marshal-photo_n_3877473.html

[freeplessinseattle]

1. Thank you for posting! Interesting article

I never knew this:

"Bridges, now 58, said she didn't realize at the time the role she was playing in helping end segregation because her parents had not explained everything that was happening. She thought the loud crowds that gathered daily outside the school were taking part some sort of parade, such as Mardis Gras, and they didn't frighten her.

But Bridges, who still lives in New Orleans, did recall seeing a black doll in a baby's casket the crowd taunted her with, a haunting image she said gave her nightmares.

"I would dream that this coffin had wings and it would fly around my bed at night, and so it was a dream that happened a lot and that's what frightened me," she said."

[Eleanors38]

5. That coffin image stopped me cold.

[longship]

2. Gees! Must have something in my eyes.

Maybe an allergy or something.

I am all teared up.

R&

[Hekate]

3. KnR. I remember that.

TY for the post.

[Eleanors38]

4. Thanks, tx4. Brought back old B&W images on TV as well.

My Dad and I watched integration films on CBS news in the late 50s, and saw how little children were treated by those "adult" mobs.

"DAMN COWARDS," he yelled.

I knew where I stood in 3 seconds flat, and I've been there since.

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Thanks Tx4...It's important to remember that there are good people

doing good things in this world. Humanity does move forward, nano step by nano step (with lots of backsliding along the way.)

[malaise]

7. Wonderful

Thank you

[msanthrope]

8. Patriots, true patriots. nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. The Problem We All Live With. N.T.