Rubry Bridges was the first African American child who attended a white school in the segregated South after the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. She attended first grade in the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on 14 November 1960.
She is also the subject of a 1964 painting, The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell.
In this video, she talks with President Barack Obama at the Norman Rockwell Museum in front of the iconic picture.
Along with the story about the Norman Rockwell Painting, this story can be used to talk about being different, being excluded and belonging. Lots of individuals in their 70's and 80's remember the Civil Rights movement affectionately. Others, not so much. But it is something that lots of people can talk about.
On a more personal level, you this video to talk about how some paintings, like books, can be about real people. Can. you imagine what it was like for her to be the first black girl in America to attend an all white school by law? What do you suppose it was like her her as an adult to meet the President in front of this picture?
An you can simplify the conversation even more to simply talk about being six years old, attending school, and now being grown up.
The idea is to let the conversation emerge at the right level to interest both parties and be meaningful to both parties.
