RUBY BRIDGES

INSPIRES A NEW GENERATION OF CHANGEMAKERS

by Melissa Fales

Sixty years after her historic walk up the front steps of the newly desegregated William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans, Ruby Bridges has released a new book, This Is Your Time. It’s a direct message from the Civil Rights icon to young people at a time when America seems as polarized and plagued with racial tension as it was then when she, at just six years old, needed a crew of federal marshals to escort her to and from school every day due to the many threats of violence against her. 

“I wrote This Is Your Time after witnessing George Floyd lose his life and wondering what young people must be thinking,” Bridges said. “I wanted kids to understand how I was feeling and what I was seeing. To me, the country looks a lot like what I was seeing when I was six… It’s disappointing to see how far apart we are and how we are still so divided in so many ways.”

Bridges, who travels to schools across the country to share her story with today’s children, says she wrote This Is Your Time for those students who would have questions about Floyd’s death. “For 25 years now, I’ve been working with young kids.” says Bridges. “One thing I know is that racism doesn’t have a place in their hearts. As adults, we are responsible for passing it on to our children. Our babies aren’t born disliking one another because of their skin color. Racism is a grown-up disease, and we need to stop using our kids to spread it.” 

Eager to speak to the younger generation about what was happening, Bridges was stymied by Covid-19 restrictions. “Everything was locked down because of the virus,” says Bridges. “There were no school visits. I didn’t know how I could reach them.” After much thought, Bridges decided to arrange her remarks in the form of a letter. “I thought maybe it would be published in a publication like USA Today or The New York Times,” she says. “When I decided to do a book instead, I kept it in the form of a letter. This Is Your Time is an open letter to today’s youth and I wrote it from my heart.” 

The book features black and white photographs from the tumultuous 1960s, including one of Bridges taken on November 14, 1960—that momentous day she attended her new school for the first time. “I thought the photographs would help spread the message,” Bridges says. “I wanted to tell young people, ‘Don’t be afraid. We’ve been through this before. We’ll get through this again.’” Young people often get a bad rap for being history-averse, but Bridges says that hasn’t been her experience in her work with kids. “My story is history,” she says. “When children meet me and learn that I’m the little girl in that photo, all grown up, they want to know my story. My story resonates with them because it’s the story of a child. They want to understand.”  

Bridges was too young at the time to comprehend the magnitude of her enrollment at the previously all-white school. She liked her teacher, Barbara Henry, but had no idea that Henry was the only member of the faculty willing to teach a black student. She remembers the marshals who, along with her mother, accompanied her to and from school every day for six months, but she didn’t know who they were or why they were there. Noticing the press and the large crowds, Bridges assumed it was Mardi Gras. “It was a hard situation to explain to a six-year-old,” she says. “What protected me was the innocence of a child.” 

Looking back, Bridges acknowledges the lasting impact her actions as a first-grader had on American racial relations. “That walk I took to school allowed us to go to school together, eat at restaurants together, and play sports together,” says Bridges. “Yes, it was hard, but we came together.” Now, she says, it’s the younger generation’s turn to act. “I want them to understand that this, too, will pass, but not without their help,” she says. “Each and every one of us needs to do what we can in order to move this country forward. I want young people to understand that they can make a difference. I want them to feel they have a responsibility to make a difference. If I could do something at the age of six that made a difference, other kids can too.”  

There’s been a recent resurgence of interest in Bridges’ story, thanks to a striking image created by artist Bria Goeller. Goeller’s piece juxtaposes an image of Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, striding confidently forward, with the shadow of the young Bridges as she was famously portrayed in Norman Rockwell’s 1964 work, The Problem We All Live With; a little girl requiring the protection of armed guards just to get to school. “I was blown away when I first saw it,” Bridges says. “It made me feel proud, and it made me feel proud of Kamala Harris. It’s a stark reminder that all of us are standing on the shoulders of others who have come before us; others who paved the way and made a difference.”

“Each and every one of us needs to do what we can in order to move this country forward. I want young people to understand that they can make a difference. I want them to feel they have a responsibility to make a difference. If I could do something at the age of six that made a difference, other kids can too.”

Bridges says she experienced a similar feeling when President Barack Obama invited her to the Oval Office in 2011 and they stood together, gazing at Rockwell’s original painting, then on display at the White House. Obama took that opportunity to acknowledge that if it wasn’t for the brave actions of Bridges and other Civil Rights activists, he might not have been elected president. “The way I felt at that moment was exactly how I felt when I saw that picture of me and Kamala Harris,” Bridges says. “It stirred up all of the same emotions.” 

This Is Your Time is written for a younger audience, but Bridges says she thinks it’s a good read for adults, too. She thinks parents who have been struggling to explain the violence and turmoil happening across the country to their children will find it especially timely. “I hope it inspires young people and maybe some older ones as well,” says Bridges. “My story is a story about hope, and the one thing we all need right now is hope.”

Despite the recent scourge of violence and discrimination in America over the past year, Bridges points out that some good has come out of such unrest. “Activism is cool again,” she says, adding that getting involved is one of the concepts she promotes in This Is Your Time. “I tell kids they need to use the talents they have to make the world a better place,” says Bridges. “You don’t need to have much to make a difference. If there is one thing you need to have, it’s the passion to want to make a difference. That’s all it takes.” 

For more information about Ruby Bridges, visit RubyBridges.com.