Without walks and dinners: the beginning of tolerance on the example of Ruby Bridges (7 photos)

The beginning of school life is one of the brightest and most significant events. for the child and parents. But this 6-year-old baby endured so much tests in an educational institution, how much beyond the power of an adult to a person.





A typical autumn day in 1960. A crowd gathered outside the school with the best intentions. Among them is the press. Many in the hands homemade posters with racist slogans. Separate especially a creative citizen took a negro doll in a coffin.



And what was the reason for such large-scale unrest? Plain six-year-old Ruby Bridges went to school. True, the parents did not say daughter that she would be the only black child among whites.





She smiled at the woman who had spat at Ruby. smiled a man who had the "courage" to shake his fist at a child. Came up the steps, accompanied by the feds, turned around and smiled again. Now everyone. The smile was her only available weapon against human rage.

Sacrifice for what?



The girl got to school in November, when classes had been going on for a long time. But when the teacher of the class was informed about the new girl, the woman immediately quit. For little Ruby, a teacher was hastily found who agreed work with a black student on an individual basis.

Parents en masse transferred their children to other schools. walk on first-graders were forbidden to change. For her own safety. Like visit the dining room: they could easily pour poison.

But the possibility of learning hit not only the girl herself, but also by her relatives. Parents were fired from their jobs, banned from shopping and going out. Grandfather and grandmother lost the farm where they worked a quarter century. The family lived on voluntary donations from fighters against racial segregation.

But the parents were sure that they had made the right choice. And education will allow her daughter to become happy in the future and worthy member of society. Assistance in adaptation was provided by a psychiatrist, who quickly found a common language with the girl. Robert Coles became one of the few people whom she truly trusted.

What's next?



By spring, some of the parents who transferred the children to other schools began to return them back. But with Ruby still no one wanted communicate. Already an adult, she admitted in an interview that one the boy then approached her and said: “My mother said not to play with you because you are a Negro." This was a shock for the baby, but also revelation too.

After Ruby, other black children began to enter the school. And she got better. In addition, there was a brave classmate - Pam Testoit, violating the boycott against the little black woman. They followed her and other children.



After graduating from school, the girl tried to go to study at stewardess. But the sky did not work out. Ruby worked for 15 years in a travel agency. agency. She got married and became the mother of four children. And later Founded a foundation to fight racism.



Painting by Norman Rockwell "The Problem We All Live With" 1964

The woman considers the fight against him her main goal. A museum exposition was dedicated to the discoverer. School Psychiatrist wrote a best-selling book in her honor called The History of Ruby Bridges.