Ruby Bridges " The Interview "

CHARLES BURKS, U.S. Marshal (Ret.): We expected a lot of trouble, but, as it turned out, it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought, even though Miss Ruby Bridges probably thought it was. For a little girl six years old going into a strange school with four strange deputy marshals, a place she had never been before, she showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn’t whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier. And we’re all very proud of her. (applause)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: And Ruby Bridges Hall, in turn, thanked the marshals.

Ruby Bridges HALL: I wish there were enough marshals to walk with every child as they faced the hatred and racism today, and to support, encourage them the way these federal marshals did for me. I know there aren’t enough of you, but I do hope that I have inspired some of you today to join me again by dedicating yourselves to not just protecting but uplifting those you touch because that will enable us to rise together as a people, as a nation, and as a world.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Here with us now is Ruby Bridges Hall, and welcome. You were six years old when you went into that school. Did you have any idea at that age what you were getting into?

Ruby Bridges HALL: No, I really didn’t. I remember that morning my mom saying to me, "Ruby, you’re going to a new school today. I want you to behave." I remember the federal marshals driving up in the car and us being in the car driving to the school. I also remember the conversation that was going on in the car. Federal marshals were explaining to us how we should get out of the car and how to walk once we arrived in front of the school.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Did they tell you there’d be nasty people there, or--

Ruby Bridges HALL: Oh, no, not at all.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Nobody prepared you for that?

Ruby Bridges HALL: No. And I kind of feel like that was a good thing because it’s--it would have been very frightening for me as a six-year-old to hear what I might actually see once I got there.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: It would loom large in your imagination.

Ruby Bridges HALL: Yes.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: And yet when you confronted it and saw it, do you remember your reaction?

Ruby Bridges HALL: Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. I really didn’t realize until I got into the school that something else was going on. Angry parents at that point rushed in and took their kids out of school. And my mother and I sat in--

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: You mean, you sat there as they paraded the other kids out of the school. You saw that?

Ruby Bridges HALL: Yes. And I didn’t quite understand what was going on, but they seemed very upset, and they were shouting, and pointing at us because we were sitting behind some glass doors.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: You and your mother?

Ruby Bridges HALL: My mother and I in the principal’s office. And we sat there all day because we were not able to go to class because all of this was going on. So I actually didn’t attend class until the very next day.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: And what happened then?

Ruby Bridges HALL: The very next day upon arriving at the school the federal marshals escorted me to my classroom, and once I got there, the teacher was there. There were all these desks and no kids. And I actually thought I was early that day.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: You thought you were early.

Ruby Bridges HALL: I thought I was early.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: You mean, you still hadn’t grasped the enormity of this and what was going on?

Ruby Bridges HALL: Not at all. And actually what had happened is that all the kids were taken out of the school, and the school at that point was boycotted.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: How long did it stay like that?

Ruby Bridges HALL: That lasted for over a year.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: You went to school every day. Ruby Bridges HALL: Yes.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Tell me about that.

Ruby Bridges HALL: Every day I went to school. My teacher, who was actually from Boston, accepted that job not knowing that the schools were going to be integrated that day. But she taught me, and every day I would arrive. She would greet me, take me to my classroom, and it was just her and I.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: And she would teach you as if she were teaching a whole class?

Ruby Bridges HALL: Exactly.


CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Did you come to create a bond between the two of you?

Ruby Bridges HALL: We got to be very, very close. As a matter of fact, I met her again last year. I had not seen her since then, 35 years actually, and I met her, and she said, "You know, it’s funny, I just realized that neither one of us ever missed a day of school." And I said, "You’re right. I don’t know what we would have done."