In Louisiana in the 1960s, White and Black people do not mix. Ruby can't study at a school near her home, which is only for white people; she has to go to another school, much further from her home. But segregation is living its last hours and, at the start of her sixth birthday, Ruby is the first black child to enter a white school. The hostility of the population is immense, and when she comes to class, Ruby is the only student... It is the start of a terrible year that will mark her life.
Entourée par les quatre grands officiers, j'essayais de na pas regarder tous ces gens, mais j'entendais leurs cris, leurs piétinements et le bruit des obets qu'ils jetaient par terre.
Je tenais la main de maman en la serrant de toutes mes forces. Nous avons gravi quelques marches et pénétré dans l'école. L'école William-Frantz était bien plus grande et bien plus belle que mon ancienne école.
Mais j'étais la seule enfant noire.
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Ruby Bridges has been erected as a symbol of the struggle for civil rights, including becoming the subject of Norman Rockwell's famous painting "The Problem We All Live With", where she is seen on her way to school escorted by four federal marshalls.
