Did you know that years before you started going to school black children and white children were not allowed to go to school together?

Jim Crow Laws: These were laws made by the state and local governments that forced segregation on black people and white people. Black people and white people had to use separate facilities like bathrooms, water fountains and schools for everything

1954 Brown v. Board of Education Decision: The Supreme Court Decision declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional (against the U.S. Constitution)

Segregation: separating two groups of people or things, for example, separating black people and white people

Integration: Bringing two separate groups of people or things together, for example bringing black people and white people together

In 1954 The Supreme Court made a decision that would end segregation of all schools so that black students and white students could go to school together, but not every school was integrated right away. Until the year 1970 black students had to take a test to integrate a white segregated school, but the test was very hard so that black students would fail the test and not be allowed to attend these white schools, but some students passed the test and one of these students was Ruby Bridges.

In 1960 Ruby Bridges was the first black student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School at the age of six in New Orleans, Louisiana. The first day Ruby went to school, she was taken by two federal marshals (government police officers) to school and when she arrived, parents of white children at the school, and white members of the community were screaming at her, and throwing objects at her, because they were angry that now black students, like Ruby, were now allowed to go to school with their white children. This is racial discrimination.

Racial Discrimination: This is when someone, or a group of people, do not like you and treat you badly because of the color of your skin and where your past family members come from

The white parents did not want integration, because they did not want their kids to be friends with, study with, or talk to black children. On the second day of school one of the angry white parents told Ruby that they were going to poison her, so Ruby was only allowed to eat school her mom and dad made at home.

It was not just the parents who were angry about Ruby going to school there, teachers were angry too. Every teacher at William Frantz Elementary School except for Barbara Henry refused(said no) to teaching Ruby.

She had no friends but her teacher Ms. Barbara Henry and she was not allowed to play outside with the other white students because if she did they would try to hurt her.

Ruby tried to make friends with some of the students in her class but students kept saying they didn’t want to be her friend because she was black.

Ruby was brave and stayed in school, but she faced a lot of racial discrimination while she was there and had to see a psychologist (doctor) to talk about why she was so unhappy at her school.

Her family also went through a lot of racial discrimination while she went to this school.

Her father lost his job

Her family was banned from entering the grocery store they used to go to

And her grandparents were forced off of the land that they had sharecropped (farmed to get paid in food) on for 25 years all because Ruby was the first black student to go to this school.

Ruby Bridges faced all of this racial discrimination  at her school 56 years ago...but did you know that black elementary school students in integrated schools now in 2016 still face racial discrimination everyday?

In 2014, 5 year old Jalyn Broussard was suspended and sent home to his parents because his teacher did not like his haircut and said that he was not allowed back into school until he cut his hair. Jalyn was the only student that was not allowed to come back because of his hair. Jalyn has curly hair naturally because he is black, so the school was using racial discrimination to suspend him. Jalyn did not do anything but wear his hair the way that it is, he should not be  punished for what he looks like. Ruby Bridges did not do anything but go to school, but she was still punished for attending school because of what she looks like, that is racial discrimination.

Sometimes black elementary school students are punished more than white elementary school students just because they are black. For example in 2009 Malik Johnson and a white student in his third grade class got into a fight where they were pushing each other back and forth. Malik got suspended but the other student did not get in trouble. The only difference between the two students in the fight was that Malik is black and the other student was white, but Malik was punished and the other student was not because Malik is black, that is racial discrimination.

As Malik got older he started to get in trouble for small things that were not against the rules until he did it. For example one time Malik “jumped down the stairs two at a time,

another time he was moving around in his seat,

one time in class he got up to sharpen his pencil too much.

Malik got punished for all of those things and when his mother asked his principal if she had punished any other students for this type of behavior she said “no, just Malik” the principal and teachers punished him because he was different then most of the students, they punished him because he was black.

This racial discrimination against Malik got so bad, that in 2015 he was  suspended for 11 days after standing up to a student that was bullying him online. Malik got suspended so many times, he “missed about five weeks of school. ‘After a while, I didn’t even want to go,” Malik said ...“It just felt like nobody wanted me there. Malik did not think he belonged in school because the school used racial discrimination against him so that he would not feel motivated to attend school and just quit.

You cannot just quit school! Ruby, Jalyn and Malik all faced racial discrimination because most integrated schools were originally white segregated schools made for white students. When the schools they went to, the school you go to and schools you will go to were integrated with black students like Ruby, these schools still did NOT stop using racial discrimination.

You have to stay in school and even if it means combatting racial discrimination, you can do this!

FIND OUT WHAT YOU CAN DO ON THE PAGE THAT SAYS YOU CAN MAKE A CHANGE! →