Ruby Bridges

Contribution: The first African American child to integrate an all-white public elementary school in the South. She later became a civil rights activist.

Ruby Bridges was six when she became the first African American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school. On November 14, 1960, she was escorted to class by her mother and U.S. marshals due to violent mobs. Bridges' brave act was a milestone in the civil rights movement, and she's shared her story with future generations in educational forums.

[Read her story]