Thread by @mariachong

Amazing. We think these things are the distant past, but Ruby Bridges is not even retired yet.

https://twitter.com/HistoryTime_/status/1038434378815352833

There's a beautiful, family-friendly film about Ruby Bridge's historic integration into New Orleans segregated schools. #ProfileInCourage

"Ruby faced public humiliation, death threats and racial slurs on her way to school. One woman held a black baby doll in a coffin, another threatened to poison her. Her father lost his job...her grandparents were evicted from the farm they had lived on for decades."

Almost 2000 white parents boycotted the school. Only two families—a Christian minister and an ex-WAC with a military veteran husband—refused to cave to mob pressure.

1) Rev. Lloyd Foreman walking with his daughter Pam to the integrated William Frantz School 2) Daisy Gabrielle walking her daughter Yolanda home

Remarkable: only .01% of the families at that school had the courage to defy the hateful default social norms.

Of the entire school, only *one teacher* agreed to work with Ruby Bridges. They were put into a classroom alone. It's apparent Mrs. Barbara Henry was a rare individual. Read her own words:

Times have changed. Things aren't perfect. Many more milestones have been achieved. Let us never return to this shameful exercise of superiority, resentment, ignorance, censure and fear.

Addendum: “Protesters holding Bibles often surrounded the Foremans' parsonage, sometimes even throwing rocks at the family pet...[after] bomb threats at the house, the pastor and his family began staying with other ministers, moving from house to house.”