The Ripon High Multicultural Club on Monday is conducting a walk to promote safe and inclusive schools as well as communities.
The "Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day" starts at 7:15 a.m. at the Ripon Community Center, 334 Fourth St. It will end at Ripon High. The walk is open to everybody.
Refreshments will be handed out before the walk starts.
The event honors Rudy Bridges, a civil rights icon who was the first Black child to integrate into an all-white school in New Orleans.
It is sponsored nationally by the Ruby Bridges Foundation and the American Automobile Association.
Bridges and five other African Americans passed entrance exams created by the school district to see if they could compete academically at all-white school to try and work around a federal desegregation order
Even after passing them the school district continued to drag its feet.
Two of the Black students opted not to leave their school while the others went to another all-white school that had less resistance.
Bridges’ parents wanted their child to attend Frantz Elementary School, that was a few blocks from their home.
Then 62 years ago today, Ruby and he mother were escorted by four federal agents to school for the first day. They received the same escort the rest of that school year based on the initial reception. One protestor carried a small coffin with a black baby doll in it.
The first day she stayed in the principal’s office as angry white parents withdrew their students.
Only one teacher — Barbara Henry — was willing to accept Ruby in her class.
She ended up being Henry’s only student that year as white parents refused to allow their children to be in the same classroom.
Despite what she was forced to deal with, Ruby never missed a day of school that year.
Ripon High Multicultural Club officers are Devin Fitzpatrick. President; Jenna Skavdahl, vice president; Alizeh Ali, treasurer; Khushdip Singh,secretary; Kylee Brown; activities; Gia Grewal, historian; and Harsimran Kaler, class representative