On this day in 1960 – Lucille and Abon Bridges, the parents of Ruby Bridges, responded to the call of the NAACP and volunteered their six year old  daughter to participate in the integration of the New Orleans School System.  Protected by U.S. Marshals, Rudy was the lone black child to enroll at the William Frantz Elementary School and the first black child to attend an all white elementary school in the south. As the Marshals led Rudy into the school, crowds of angry whites threw tomatoes and other objects at the young girl and called her names. Once she was inside white parents began withdrawing their children from the school. White teachers at the school quit their jobs rather than teach a black student. Only one white teacher, Barbara Henry, from Boston, a newcomer to the city and the school, was willing to teach Rudy. For over a year Rudy was the only student in Mrs. Henry’s class and just like her young student, each day the teacher had to pass through mobs of protesters shouting racist insults and threats.  Rudy’s first school day was depicted by artist Norman Rockwell in a famous painting  titled The Problem We All Live With.  Life Magazine published a two-page illustration of the painting in 1964.  It is one of Rockwell’s most famous works.

In 1995, Rudy worked as a volunteer at Frantz, her old alma mater, that’s when Robert Coles was inspired to publish The Story of Ruby Bridges, a children’s book about her. It was the first book of its kind, to take a subject like racism and try to explain it to children. The book became a bestseller.

In 1996, 35 years after she integrated Frantz, Rudy reunited with her former teacher, Barbara Henry, on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 1999, Rudy published Through My Eyes, her own account of her days at Frantz. The book won numerous literary prizes.

In October, 2006, the city of Alameda Unified School District dedicated a new elementary school to Ruby Bridges, and issued a proclamation in her honor.

Ruby Bridges, now Ruby Bridges Hall, still lives in New Orleans.