"If you want to know if racism is a problem in your country, you might not want to ask white people."
–Tim Wise
Ruby Bridges
The story behind one of the most iconic pictures of the 20th century is as about racism and segregation in the United States. Even after slavery was abolished, African-American communities in the United States, especially the South, struggled with segregation in buses, schools, restaurants and diners, etc,. Even though a decision to desegregate schools was reached in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), many schools resisted by making difficult tests for the African-American children, so that the schools stay segregated for a little while longer. In the New Orleans, the child in the photo, Ruby Bridges was one of six African-American children to take the test and also pass, at the William Frantz Elementary School. She was going to be the first black child in the South to attend an all-white school. After much resistance from the state legislature, Ruby was finally allowed to go to school and a federal district court judge requested the government to send federal marshals to escort Ruby to school. Upon reaching she met a huge crowd, barricades, and people yelling and throwing all sorts of objects at her. Teachers refused to teach classes and parents refused to send their children in to school that day, one woman even went as far as threatening to poison her food. Ruby, despite being ostracised and threatened, was able to finish school at William Frantz Elementary and kept brave through it all.