Ruby Bridges was from a working class family in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. While both whites and blacks lived in the neighborhood, residents were segregated by block. Schools were segregated as well; though Ruby lived only five blocks from William Frantz Elementary, she had to walk much further to attend the school reserved for African American students.

On 14 November 1960, however, Ruby Bridges became the first black student to integrate a school in the South.

Under the escort of federal marshals, Ruby rode to William Frantz Elementary and entered the school building under their protection. She faced an angry crowd that shouted obscene, racist threats at Ruby as she entered the school. Even to use the restroom, she had to be escorted by the marshals, and Ruby ate lunch alone in the classroom every day, with food she brought from home, since there were threats that the 6-year-old Ruby would be poisoned.

All the teachers refused to teach in a segregated school, except for Barbara Henry, who taught Ruby every day for the entire school year.

The White Citizens’ Council held a meeting in the Municipal Auditorium attended by over 5,000 people on 15 November, where the leaders of the meeting called for protests and boycotts to resist integration. 

Ruby Bridges finished grammar school at William Frantz and graduated from an integrated high school.

Ruby Bridges’ father lost his job as a gas station attendant because of integration, and the grocery store where they shopped refused to sell anything to them. Some white families continued to send their children to Frantz despite the protests, a neighbor provided her father with a new job, and local people babysat, watched the house as protectors.