New Bridge kids mark Ruby Bridges’ historic school desegregation effort
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- New Bridge Elementary students walk around Liberty Park in Ogden on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, to honor Ruby Bridges, the first African-American student to integrate a grade school in the South. The students took to the sidewalks 62 years after Bridges integrated a New Orleans school on Nov. 14, 1960.
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- New Bridge Elementary students walk around Liberty Park in Ogden on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, to honor Ruby Bridges, the first African-American student to integrate a grade school in the South. The students took to the sidewalks 62 years after Bridges integrated a New Orleans school on Nov. 14, 1960.
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- From left, New Bridge Elementary sixth graders Alan Esparza, Abigail Williams and Bobby Clawson lead a walk to honor Ruby Bridges, the first African-American student to integrate a grade school in the South. The students marched on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, 62 years after Bridges integrated a New Orleans school on Nov. 14, 1960.
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- New Bridge Elementary students walk around Liberty Park in Ogden on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, to honor Ruby Bridges, the first African-American student to integrate a grade school in the South. The students took to the sidewalks 62 years after Bridges integrated a New Orleans school on Nov. 14, 1960.
OGDEN — Sixty-two years after Ruby Bridges walked through an angry mob into William Frantz Elementary, integrating the New Orleans school for the first time, students from New Bridge Elementary — inspired by her courage — brought a message of inclusivity to their neighborhood.
“We are all part of the same community. We’re the same, it doesn’t matter,” said Bobby Clawson, a New Bridge sixth grader who took part.
Students from the diverse school, which has nearly 600 kids, marched around adjacent Liberty Park on Monday as part of Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, which marks the day Bridges first entered her New Orleans school on Nov. 14, 1960, integrating an elementary school in the South for the first time. It came three years after nine Black students integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, for the first time and, like the Arkansas incident, help motor the civil rights movement.
The New Bridge kids taking part Monday said the overarching message they hoped to convey centers on the importance of accepting other students.
“Stop bullying,” said Alan Esparza, a sixth grader.
“No racism. Don’t be homophobic,” said Abigail Williams, also a sixth grader.
“Be accepting. Be empathetic,” said Bobby.
The first-time effort here was the brainchild of Rachel Clawson, the librarian at New Bridge and Bobby Clawson’s mom. She worked with all the classes in the school in the lead-up to Monday’s event, teaching them about what Bridges did and the significance of her effort as just a 6-year-old in fighting discrimination and, more generally, dealing with intense bullying.
Walking into school the first day, escorted by her mom and four U.S. marshals, some in the crowd were “screaming vicious slurs,” reads an account of Bridges and her efforts by the National Women’s History Museum.
“Not just adults change the world,” Clawson said. “But we want to show (students) that kids, just like them, can change the world.”
Indeed, the act of simply going to school despite the intense backlash Bridges faced from foes of school integration had big ripple effects. “She faced bullying and adversity. … She was able to face them just by walking into the school,” Clawson said.
Famed U.S. artist Norman Rockwell completed a painting inspired by the moment Bridges first entered William Frantz Elementary, titled “The Problem We All Live With.”
The New Bridge kids carried signs around Liberty Park with varied messages, one reading “Ruby changed the world,” another reading “We pledge to be bully free! Everyone matters!” Some of the kids chanted, “At New Bridge, we are kind.”
New Bridge is a diverse school, about 52% Hispanic, 41% white and 7% other races or ethnicities or of multiple races. As such, Katelyn Welch, a New Bridge counselor, said school officials want everyone to feel welcome, another central message in the Ruby Bridges effort.
“We want everyone to feel equal at our schools, safe and respected,” she said.
Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, an initiative launched by Bridges herself, is marked at many schools on the East Coast and in California, Clawson said.