A black girl escrted to school: 1960 and 2009

On November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges faced hostile crowds, and had to be escorted to scool by US Marshalls because she was the first black child to attend the previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ruby was 6 years old. (The Great Norman Rockwell created the painting above depicting that event.)

That morning, she had only been told by her mother that she was going to be attending a new school that day and "had better behave." Little did little Ruby know that she would be bombarded with jeers and even death threats; and that she would end up being the sole child in her first grade class because all the other children were kept home by their parents. All because Ruby was Black.






















On January 5, 2009, nearly 49 years after Ruby attended her school, 7 year old Sasha Obama faced cheering schoolmates as she was escorted by her Mother and US Secret Service Agents to Sidwell Friends Elementary School in Washington, DC. Her Mother, the current First Lady of the United States of America, had Secret Service escort because Sasha's daddy is now the 44th President of the United States.