Illustrator: Ruby Bridges
Genre: Biography and Autobiography
Grade level: K-2nd
Summary:
Ruby Bridges is the first African American student to attend William Frantz Elementary School, located in Louisiana back in 1961. This was a whites-only school. The government gave Ruby permission to attend this school because it was much closer to her home and offered a better education. During this time there was segregation in the United States, white and black people were not allowed to be together in schools, restaurants, bathrooms, movie theaters, and so on. When Ruby attended William Frantz Elementary School white families were very upset about it. This resulted in them removing their children from the school because they did not want a black child at their white child's school. Everyday people would stand outside the school as Ruby arrived, threatening her, saying racist slurs, and saying they want segregation back. Ruby was the only student in this school building for months, and people would threaten her everyday. Ruby had a teacher named Mrs. Henry. Mrs. Henry is a white woman, this teacher stood by her side and taught her in the empty classroom for the majority of the school year. One day students finally began to slowly come back to the school. Many famous people began writing Ruby letters admiring how brave she is for fighting a change in equality, to end segregation in schools. People like the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and artist Norman Rockwell reached out to Ruby with their letters. Ruby at a very young age faced many battles and mistreatment from racist people. Ruby was fighting for justice, and was representing her black community during these hard times. She is still alive today and very well known for her story. Ruby goes around to different schools telling her story, to teach about kindness and social justice.
Element 4: Social movements and social change
Ruby Bridges at the age of 7 fought for social equality in schools and today she is still a civil rights activist. Element 4 is about social movements and social change and that is what Ruby did when she began attending an all white school. By Ruby attending this school she was fighting against what was normal at the time, segregation. Although so many white people were very angry at this 7 year old black girl for attending "their" school, she never once backed down, attended school, and got her education whether people liked it or not. "Some people did not want a black child like me to go to the white school. They stood near the school. They yelled at me to go away", states Ruby in her book. Thanks to Ruby's bravery she was able to begin a movement for social change in the United States. Ruby is one of the many well-known social activists that we know, who were brave enough to fight for where we are today.
Classroom Activity:
After reading the story I would like to go over some vocabulary that may have stood out to the students and talk about what they mean. I would then like the students to create a timeline of the story placing all of the events in sequence using pictures, years and descriptions from beginning, middle, and end.
Other classroom activities:
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment