(
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"39981","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":"Ruby Charles"}}]]The Children's Museum is lucky to have Ruby Bridges as a partner in our shared efforts to inspire children to fight intolerance and make a positive difference in the world. Ruby advised on The Power of Children gallery and now visits the museum annually for a special school program. Each year students from surrounding area schools in grades 6–9 are encouraged to write letters to Ruby sharing concerns and issues facing them as teens in today’s world. These students are then invited to Ruby's classroom in the Power of Children gallery where they have the special opportunity to discuss their letters with Ruby.
This week the museum was proud to host Ruby Bridges as she met with Charles Burks, one of the four U.S. Federal Marshals who escorted her, at age six, into William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans on November 14, 1960. As we celebrate this historic moment, we wanted to share a conversation we had with Ruby this past spring. Ruby reflects on the impact of the Power of Children gallery and the role of children today in promoting tolerance and positivity.
What made you want to work with The Children’s Museum?
Ruby: The Children's Museum actually approached me and I thought it was a great idea. It’s a great museum and a great way to expose my story to lots of kids who actually come through the museum, and expose it in a more interactive way.
What are your thoughts when you’re sitting in that classroom and talking about things with the students?
Ruby: Well it’s a duplication of my classroom so it takes me back to 1960, and being in that space, and what it felt like. It actually makes it a lot easier to tell my story, being in that setting. The classroom is very realistic. Jennifer Robinson [VP of Experience Development and Family Learning] and her staff and I worked really hard to try to get it right. And she did an amazing job, down to the sandwiches in the cabinet.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"39982","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":"Ruby Talk"}}]]
What do you feel like the students get from that experience when they come in?
Ruby: I think the kids pretty much know my story when they come. But it’s the little behind-the-scenes details that they take away [that gives them] a much clearer view of the story and how it unfolded, which they totally relate to. They relate to it because it’s about kids and it’s about not being accepted, and you not being able to do anything about changing who you are. All kids can relate to that.
How do you feel like the efforts to prevent bullying have changed in the past years?
Ruby: It’s such an issue, and kids are struggling with it. I don’t know why it’s as rampant as it is. Even back when we were in school, I think we were all getting bullied at one point. But it wasn’t like it happened at every school and everywhere you go it’s all anybody talked about. It wasn’t like that then, but today it is. And I think that that’s a shame. I think we need to do whatever we can to make kids feel safe. It’s very hard to grow up feeling unsafe in your own school.
What do you hope that children and families get from the experience in the exhibit as a whole, including the stories of Ryan White and Anne Frank?
Ruby: I think what I’d like for them to take away is that no one—kids especially—should be made to feel badly about who you are. And that we as kids—I always say “we" because I’m still speaking from the point of view of a six year old—we as kids, the way we can change that is by not making each other feel that way. We change that by giving each other a chance to get to know one another.
