Ruby Bridges quotes speak a lot about racism and her faith in God and prayer. In so many of her quotes she talk about racism and how innocent children are dragged into the mix of things. She talks about faith in God many times and also mentioned Martin Luther King Jr.
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall is an American civil rights activist who as a child did something dramatic in American history at the time. She became the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School. This happened in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis. This was a time when many civil rights activists like Malcolm X were working feverishly for freedom for blacks.
Quote #1 “The greatest lesson I learned that year in Mrs. Henry's class was the lesson Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to teach us all: Never judge people by the color of their skin. God makes each of us unique in ways that go much deeper." |
Quote #2 “You cannot look at a person and tell whether they're good or bad." |
Quote #3 “Racism is a grown-up disease, and we should stop using our kids to spread it." |
Quote #4 “Racism is a form of hate. We pass it on to our young people. When we do that, we are robbing children of their innocence.” |
Quote #5 “The people I passed every morning as I walked up the school's steps were full of hate. They were white, but so was my teacher, who couldn't have been more different from them. She was one of the most loving people I had ever known.” |
Quote #6 "We may not all be equally guilty. But we are all equally responsible for building a decent and just society." |
Quote #7 “If kids have the oportunity to come together to get to know one another, they can judge for themselves who they want their friends to be. All children should have that choice. We, as adults, shouldn't make those choices for children. That's how racism starts." |
Quote #8 “We all have a common enemy, and it is evil." |
Quote #9 “Evil isn't prejudiced. It doesn't care what you look like; it just wants a place to rest. It's up to you whether you give it that place." |
Quote #10 “When I think about our babies today and them not being safe in school, I think that should be the next civil rights movement, you know, is to ban the assault weapons so that our babies can be safe." |
Quote #11 “I remember turning onto the street. I saw barricades and police officers and, just, people everywhere. When I saw all of that, I immediately thought that it was Mardi Gras. I had no idea that they were here to keep me out of the school." |
Quote #12 “Evil looks like you and I. I know what evil looks like, and I know that it comes in all shades and colors." |
Quote #13 “If you really think about it, if we begin to teach history exactly the way that it happened - good, bad, ugly, no matter what - I believe that we're going to find that we are closer, more connected than we are apart." |
Quote #14 “We must absolutely take care of one another." |
Quote #15 “We have to take care of each other's children." |
Quote #16 “I believe that we have to come together, and we have to rely on the goodness of each other." |
Quote #17 “Throughout my life, my prayers have actively sustained me - held me up, carried me through." |
Quote #18 “What we, as African Americans, stood on was our faith." |
Quote #19 “I believe in my prayers." |
Quote #20 "Wisdom is a gift but has nothing to do with age. That was probably the case with me." |
Quote #21 “I wanted to use my experience to teach kids that racism has no place in hearts and minds." |
Quote #22 "A lot of my strength came from my upbringing." |
Quote #23 “It's not who you're going to sit beside at school that matters now: it's what resources will your school have." |
Quote #24 "We have tolerance, respect, and equality in our written laws but not in the hearts of some of our people." |
Quote #25 “Somehow, it always worked. Kneeling at the side of my bed and talking to the Lord made everything okay." |
Quote #26 “My mother and our pastor always said you have to pray for your enemies and people who do you wrong, and that's what I did." |
Quote #27 “I would dream that this coffin had wings, and it would fly around my bed at night, and so it was a dream that happened a lot, and that's what frightened me." |
Quote #28 "Kids really don't care about what their friends look like." |
Quote #29 "Kids come into the world with clean hearts, fresh starts." |
Quote #30 “I remember the first time seeing myself on TV, when my family was watching the documentary 'Eyes on the Prize' for the first time. There were pictures of people going up the school stairs, and Mom said, 'Oh, that's you!' I said, 'I can't believe this. This is important.'" |
Quote #31 “My mother had taught me that the only thing you could depend on was your faith, and I had that." |
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Quote #33 “I'm not a very public person." |
Quote #34 “If my mama said not to do something, I didn't do it." |
Quote #35 “If we are about what is good today, then we that are good need to come together to fight what's bad out there." |
Quote #36 “We'd get these boxes of clothing in the mail, and my mom would say, 'What makes you think all this is for you? You've got a sister right behind you.' So then I realized, we're all in this together. We have to help each other." |
Quote #37 “It's taken me a long time to own the early part of my life." |
Quote #38 “There are all kinds of monuments to adults - usually dead and usually white. But we don't often lift up the extraordinary work of children." |
Quote #39 “I want to inspire kids." |
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Quote #41 “All of our schools should be good enough to attract a healthy racial mix, which, I believe, leads to the most effective learning for everybody." |
Quote #42 “I'm the mother of four." |
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Quote #44 “What I do remember about first grade and that year was that it was very lonely. I didn't have any friends, and I wasn't allowed to go to the cafeteria or play on the playground. What bothered me most was the loneliness in school every day." |
Quote #45 “Administrations and administrative faculty work very hard to see that schools are diverse as much as possible." |
Quote #46 “I pray for my enemies, that God would forgive them." |
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Ruby Bridges quotes are about a young girl who loved all despite how she was treated. She was quite the opposite to someone like Angela Davis who was more radical, yet both women were able to impact their society in some way. I hope everyone can take something from her quotes to inspire and motivate.
