Ruby Bridges, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you so much for having me.
Um, it's truly an honor to have you,
because you are one of those people
who doesn't seem real in life.
You started your life as-as a young Black girl
in a place where Black children
could not go to a school that had white kids in it.
And-and you talk about this in-in your new b-book,
which is really, really beautiful and enlightening.
But what was it like being a child in a school
where white teachers didn't want to teach you,
white students didn't want to be with you,
white parents didn't want you in the school,
and yet a white teacher
was the one you talk about so affectionately,
who came in and said, "I'm going to teach Ruby Bridges
"everything she needs to learn in the school
and deserves to learn in the school"?
Being six years old, I had no idea what to expect.
Um, the only thing my parents tried to tell me is,
"Ruby, you're gonna go to a new school, and you better behave."
And that was really the extent of preparing me for what I saw.
But living in New Orleans,
I was accustomed to Mardi Gras, you know?
And they were screaming and throwing things
and waving their hands,
and that's what happens at Mardi Gras.
So, you know, what really protected me
was the innocence of a child.
I really didn't understand what was happening
until I got into the school
and, months into it, you know, finally,
you know, was able to connect with some students
-that were being hidden from me. -Right.
And a little boy said, "I can't play with you.
My mom said not to play with you because you're a nigger."
And so I-I started thinking, even right then, that,
well, if my mom said, "Hey, don't play with him
"because he's Asian, he's... Indian,
"he's mixed-race, he's gay,
he's, you know, white,"
-I would not have played with him. -Mm-hmm.
So, in my mind, he was explaining to me
why he couldn't play with me.
So he did hurt my feelings, but I was never angry with him.
And the fact that, every day,
the person that greeted me was a white woman
who looked exactly like the crowd outside,
I came to realize that she looked like them
-but she wasn't like them. -Mm-hmm.
-Right. -She showed me her heart.
She made school fun.
I loved being at school.
I knew that, if I just got out of the car,
past the crowd, and inside of my classroom,
I was gonna have a great day.
And so, really, because of her showing me her heart,
I knew that I couldn't judge her the same way
as the people outside.
So I always tell people that the lesson she really taught me
was that there's absolutely no way you can look at a person
and judge them by the color of their skin.
She taught me the lesson
-that Dr. King tried to teach all of us... -Right.
...that you have to judge a person
by the content of their character.
So that was the most important lesson that I took away,
and I wanted to dedicate myself
to trying to explain that to kids
so that they know that racism has no place
in their hearts and in their minds.
And, you know, Trevor, if we're gonna get past
our racial differences, it's going to come from our kids.
It really does seem like America needs that more than ever,
especially right now.
You know, America's more divided
than, in some ways, it's ever been in the modern era.
It feels like there is no end to that
despite the-the election ending.
Why did you choose to release the book now?
What are you hoping to achieve?
I saw exactly what everybody else saw:
someone being murdered right in...
right before our very eyes.
And it made me think about the kids
that I've been speaking to for the last 25 years,
trying to convince them that...
we need to come together,
that racism doesn't have a place.
And yet this was happening,
and I felt like...
in a sense, I'd let them down.
Maybe I led them down the wrong path,
because look what's happening.
And I felt like I needed to be able to talk with them,
because they're probably sitting there, thinking,
"Well, this isn't what Ruby has been saying to us."
And so I have some very good people,
you know, that are very close to me
and I spoke to them about it and they said,
"Why don't you write a letter to them?"
And that's actually what this book is.
It is my letter to young people,
the young people that I saw, you know, take to the streets,
to let them know that...
what I saw,
um, what I witnessed
was the exact same behavior that I saw when I was six,
back in 1960 during the civil rights movement.
But, you know, we went through that
and we had to go through that
and it brought us to where we are today.
And that now it was their turn,
that they need not be afraid,
that it is growing pains,
and I do believe that, if they come together--
Because that past-- the past 60 years brought us together.
-Right. -You know?
We're able to be in school together,
we play sports together, we enjoy the same music.
It brought us together.
Not as close as we need to be,
but it's on them now to pick up the torch,
to carry it and to continue to do what they do
to move this country forward.
And so that's what this book is about.
When you look at the state of schooling today in America,
you know, the legacy of segregation lives on,
although it's not officially mandated by the state.
What do you think needs to be done
to try and create a system in America
where schooling is equal
and kids are able to interact with each other
in these environments where they should meet with each other
before they become full-blown adults
and then meet their first person of color
or white person for the first time?
The very school that I integrated,
school that we're talking about, you know,
it was hit by Hurricane Katrina
and then restored.
It's a $30 million school in an inner-city neighborhood.
I fought very, very hard to restore that school.
I wanted it to be an integrated school.
-Mm-hmm. -It is segregated.
It is all Black.
It totally goes against my work and what I believe in.
I was told that, you know, policies,
that we can't choose kids by race
and put 'em in a school.
In other words, we can't integrate a school.
And I looked at them and I said, "Are you talking to me?
(chuckles) "You're telling me
"that you can't integrate a school?
"Yes, you can. I did it.
And we can do it again."
But we, we have to want that.
We have to understand how important that is
for us to move this country forward.
And so we have to-- If they don't know how to do it,
then go back to 1960,
pick up the rule book, you know,
look at it and figure it out.
But we need to do it again.
Ruby Bridges, thank you so much for joining us on the show.
And, uh, thank you for an amazing book
that-that, um, is truly powerful in-in so many different ways.
Thank you. I'll make sure I'll-I'll send you a copy.
Thank you very much.