When she was 6 years old, Ruby Bridges was the first Black student to desegregate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. The historical moment was captured in the Norman Rockwell’s 1964 painting titled “The Problem We All Live With,” which now appears on the cover of her new children’s book.
In “This Is Your Time,” Bridges addresses young readers in a letter that not only speaks about her experience being escorted by marshals amid protesters decades ago, and also describes racism as a “grown-up disease” that adults pass down to children to spread.
“We all know that none of our kids are born knowing anything about disliking the child sitting next to them,” Bridges told the PBS NewsHour’s Charlayne Hunter-Gault. “Our babies don’t come into the world knowing anything about racism or disliking someone because of the color of their skin. It is learned behavior.
She added: “I believe that if it can be taught, it can be taught not to be that way.”
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