Commentary by Marjorie A. Gordon-DeLee (November 14, 2018)
Today marks 58 years since Ruby Bridges (Born 1954, which is my birth year as well) walked through the doors of a White school to integrate.
Yes, Ruby was a very brave five (5) year old young girl to walk through that crowd of hostile White protestors in 1960 to integrate that school. Those were tough times for Black people in this nation. Ruby was taught to pray back in those days because any problems that a family encountered was approached with prayer.
Children were taught at a very young age to be responsible, therefore, many had mature mindsets and focused on whatever they needed to do. There was not a lot of time allowed to play around and not be responsible because you were taught that there was always a chore that needed to be completed.
The teachers always taught us to be kind to one another and to show compassion. All teachers emphasized that we should always treat others as we would like to be treated. Teachers did not have a problem with any loud outburst in classes, cursing, disrespectfulness, or meanness toward her as the teacher nor the students to each other. If it did occur it was far and in between.
I was six (5) years old living in the State of South Carolina where integration there in my small town of Hampton, SC did not occur until 1968 (and that was just a few families that allow their children to enter the White schools at that time) if memory serves me correctly. However, my siblings and I did not enter the White schools until August of 1970 when it became mandatory in the area in which I lived. My father would not allow us to go the White schools in 1968 when the first group of black children integrated the white school.
I also have horrible memories of that time in my life when the Black people were treated so horribly and I see the same type of behaviors strongly coming back today. People need to open their eyes and see exactly what is going on because we, as a nation, have most definitely regressed. The White Supremacist are becoming bolder and bolder and it is time to stop this madness now. There are too many of our young Black boys, men, girls, and women who are locked behind bars. It is absolutely preposterous to believe this is going on now in this day in time. We did not have this many Black people behind bars back in the 50s and 60s. The prison system is the new Slavery Camps. That is exactly what they are.
Being made to go through a bathroom door with a sign saying “Colored” and looking at the sign at the next door saying “Whites” was a horrible thing for me too see when I was a little girl. The same signs were also up in the doctor offices. We could not sit in the same waiting rooms as the White people, we had our own separate waiting rooms as Black people. And as been told in the news, Black people are being discriminated now in restaurants not being allow to use bathrooms and sit in a restaurant without being watched or made to purchase a meal while they wait for their other party to arrive
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