Ruby Bridges Virtual Visits Shuler Elementary

Third-grade students at Shuler Elementary had an extraordinary virtual experience with Ruby Bridges.  Bridges was the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South in 1960. Natalie Elliott, a third-grade teacher at Shuler had a personal connection with Bridges from her previous teaching experience in California. Elliott taught for 11 years at an inner-city teacher in Los Angeles and in Irvine, before moving to Iowa last year.

Bridges and Elliott have kept in contact and Bridges reached out to Elliott about doing a Zoom meeting with her class.  Since Bridges is not traveling due to the pandemic, she wanted to use Elliott’s class as a “tester” of a virtual platform.

This virtual meeting was guided by Q&A from students and they were able to directly ask Bridges their question. During the meeting, they discussed what it was like at William Franz Elementary School for her during the time of desegregation.  She said people yelled all sorts of negative things at her as well as threw objects each day at her.

Bridges also discussed the importance of teachers in this world.  The true unsung hero, in this case, was her first-grade teacher, Barbara Henry.  She emphasized how her teacher became her best friend that year, and Bridges ate lunch with her every day.  They are still best friends to this day and were reunited on the Oprah Winfrey Show a couple of decades ago.

She talked about the Disney movie that was made about her integration story, and what it was like meeting the cast and crew on set. She also shared her experience of meeting President Obama at the White House.

The most important part of her message is how racism is a grown-up disease and that’s why she travels all over the world to speak to kids.  Her message encourages kids to show more kindness, compassion, courage, and respect to all peers and people. Thank you to both Elliott and Bridges for bringing this amazing experience to our students.