How these Passaic students honored Ruby Bridges' bravery with a symbolic walk
PASSAIC — Two of the city's schools combined efforts and joined a nationwide movement to observe Ruby Bridges Day with a symbolic walk on Tuesday morning.
School 20 joined School 21, whose students spent a month learning about the impact 6-year-old Ruby Bridges had on the nation 63 years ago as the first Black child to walk into an all-white school in New Orleans.
"It is amazing that she was able to walk through all that with her head held high," said School 21 Principal Tiffany Crockett. School 21 is also known as Sonia Sotomayor School, and School 20 is also known as the Passaic Gifted and Talented Academy.
With the help of the Automobile Association of America and the United Passaic Organization, the schools took the opportunity to learn about Bridges and her story as well as the civil rights movement.
Who is Ruby Bridges?
On Nov. 14, 1960, Bridges became the first African American child to attend William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis. The "crisis" refers to the time that followed the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education ruling that racial segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
She wrote "I am Ruby Bridges," a book about her experience, and was the subject of Norman Rockwell's 1964 painting titled "The Problem We All Live With."
As time passed, her profile in courage dimmed from the public's memory until five years ago, when members of the Martin Elementary School safety patrol in South San Francisco heard of Bridges for the first time.
As they were learning of Bridges' courage and bravery, the safety patrol group decided it was a story that needed to be told. With the help of the Ruby Bridges Foundation, founded by Bridges in 2000, and AAA, which works with school safety patrols nationwide, her story has once again spread across the nation.
In Passaic County, Prospect Park and Passaic have recognized her contributions this month. Prospect Park welcomed Bridges last week. She spoke and posed for photos with community members and students.
Crockett said learning about Bridges has been an inspiration for many students, who a month ago did not know who she was.
"Hers is a legacy of determination and courage," Crockett said.
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United Passaic Organization Executive Director Janelle Hall said it drives home the point that students have to learn to stick up for themselves and their right to a good education.
"Students learn that this is why I am able to be here," Hall said.
School 21 safety patrol member Caleb De Jesus Custodio said that after he first learned about Bridges at an assembly, he became interested in learning more of her story, especially about how she stood up to her fears.
"I could relate to it," Custodio said. "I was new to the school and it was scary."
Bridges today chairs the foundation she started and continues to promote "tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Passaic NJ students honor Ruby Bridges with symbolic walk
