# data[].attributes.body
Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 in the town of Tylertown, Mississippi. For the first few years of her life, she lived on a farm that her parents (Abon and Lucille) and grandparents sharecropped. When she was four, her parents move to New Orleans in search of a better life. There, her father worked at a gas station and her mother would take different night jobs. Ruby also had two brothers and two sisters.

# data[].attributes.body
Although Brown vs. Board had been passed the same year Ruby was born, African American students still had to take a test to get into white schools. Only a handful of students each year were chosen to take it and Ruby was selected the year she was in Kindergarten. The test was very difficult and very hard to pass. The idea behind making the test so hard was that if all the students failed, the schools would get to stay segregated.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1960, Ruby passed the test. Her father had not wanted her to take it, for fear that it would cause trouble. Her mother pushed the idea and thought her daughter would get a better education if she went to a white school. Ruby was one in six to pass the test and she was to be the only African American to attend William Frantz School. She would also be the first African American to attend an all-white school in the south.

# data[].attributes.body
Ruby was not going to be able to start school right away. The Louisiana State Legislature had been fighting the federal court all summer and trying to slow the process. They eventually had to give in and there were certain schools that had to be integrated by November. Ruby's school was one of them. The Federal District Judge thought there might be trouble so he ordered that Federal Marshals be sent it.

# data[].attributes.body
November 14, 1960 was Ruby Bridges first day of school. The Federal Marshals drove her and her mother there. When they got there, there were two in the front, and two in the back. Large crowds had gathered and were throwing objects and yelling. Barricades and policemen were present. Because Ruby was so young, she thought that it was some type of Mardi Gras celebration because of all the people. Ruby was taken straight to the principals office were she spent the rest of the day. There were no classes that day since most of the children had been kept home and all the chaos outside.

# data[].attributes.body
On the second day, conditions were the same. There was only one teacher who would let Ruby in her classroom. That teacher was Barbara Henry. She was originally from Boston and a new teacher at the school. Ruby was the only student in the class. That was because parents pulled their children out of class or threatened to send them to other schools. Ruby and her teacher sat side by side to learn her lessons all yea long.

# data[].attributes.body
After winter break, the stress started to affect Ruby. She started having nightmares and would seek her mother in the middle of the night for comfort. She eventually stopped eating lunch and hid her food in a closet in the classroom. Ruby also started seeing a child psychologist once a week. He let her talk about whatever she wanted whether it was about school or home.

# data[].attributes.body
Ruby's family also started to feel the stain and stress. Her father lost his job and her grandparents were kicked off the land they had sharecropped for over 25 years. The family was banned from shopping at their local grocery store. But eventually people, both black and white, started to show their support. They started sending their children back to school, there were less disturbances, a neighbor provided her father with a job, neighbors offered to watch the house and babysit, and they also walked to school with Ruby behind the Marshals.

# data[].attributes.body
Everyday school life was not easy for Ruby. She was constantly bombarded with blatant racism, received poison threats, and was "greeted" by people with black baby dolls in coffins. She was not allowed to eat in the cafeteria or even go to recess. She was also escorted everywhere by Federal Marshal, including the bathroom.

# data[].attributes.body
“Ruby Bridges.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017, www.biography.com/people/ruby-bridges-475426.

“Ruby Bridges.” Scholastic, www.scholastic.com/teachers/authors/ruby-bridges/.

“Ruby Bridges.” National Women's History Museum, www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges.

# data[].attributes.body
Th next year of school was drastically different from the first. Barbara Henry's contract was not renewed so she moved back to Boston. There were no more Marshals to escort Ruby everywhere she went. She started walking to school on her own. The school began to see full enrollment again and she was not alone in her class. And the past year was never mentioned; as if people just wanted to put it behind them.

# data[].attributes.body
Ruby Bridges finished grade school at William Frantz school. She then went on to attend high school at Francis T. Nichols High School (an integrated school). Ruby attended Kansas City business school to study travel and tourism. She then went on to work for American Express as a travel agent. Ruby married Malcolm Hill in 1984 and they had four sons together.

# data[].attributes.body
After her brothers death in 1993, Ruby went back to Louisiana to help with his four children. While there, she started to volunteer at the William Frantz School three days a week. She soon became a parent-community liaison. In 1999, she formed the Ruby Bridges Foundation in New Orleans. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis opened a new exhibit documenting her life in 2007. Today, Ruby Bridges is 63.