One of the cornerstones of progress during the Civil Rights movement can be marked by the integration of African American students into all-white schools throughout the south. However, long withheld prejudices and racial intolerance made for a very difficult educational experience for the students being brought into all-white schools, as they were relentlessly taunted and ridiculed by angry mobs upon their enrollment. Ruby Bridges The Movie, in my personal opinion, did a fantastic job of exemplifying the horrific circumstances that students, such as Ruby Bridges, were forced to endure during the desegregation movement when entering the public schools. Angry parents and citizens of New Orleans would gather in mass crowds outside the entrance of William Frantz Elementary School, just so that they could scream out racial slurs and spit on Ruby upon her walk to school in attempts to deter her from entering the building. Ruby Bridges The Movie draws awareness to Bridges’ bravery and depicts just how significant her courage was to the advancement of African American and white integration during 1960. Without people like Ruby, it is clear that we wouldn’t have made any of the headway in our nation to end racism and racial intolerance. The movie was at times hard to watch, but an accurate portrayal of the atrocities that African American children had to endure during the desegregation of public schools in the south.
A Place For Thought 