At the November 6 San Mateo County Board of Education meeting, students in Deborah Carlino's fifth-grade class from Martin Elementary School in the South San Francisco Unified School District thanked County Board of Education members and Superintendent Magee for recognizing November 14 as Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day for the second year in a row.
Ruby Bridges became a symbol of the civil rights movement at age six, when she was the youngest of a group of African American students designated to integrate schools in the American South. On November 14, 1960, her first day of school at William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Ruby was escorted to school by four federal marshals and spent the entire day in the principal’s office as irate parents marched into the school to remove their children.
Last year, Mrs. Carlino’s students learned about American activist Ruby Bridges as part of their class curriculum and came up with an idea to adopt a “Ruby Bridges Day” to honor Ruby’s role in the civil rights movement. They gathered over 1,000 signatures from students, parents, and community members, and presented their proposal last school year to SSFUSD’s Board of Trustees, who in turn passed a resolution approving November 14 as Ruby Bridges Day across the district.
This year's class, inspired by their peers' success last year, continued the momentum by asking the South San Francisco Unified School District Board of Trustees, South San Francisco City Council, and County Board of Education to adopt a resolution recognizing November 14 as Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. Read the County Board of Education's full resolution and find resources for participating school districts.