Swiroset.com

We recognize Ruby Bridges for her life’s work as a civil rights leader and activist; we find an unsightly caricature of Ruby’s historic walk through an angry, snarling crowd with new education secretary Betsy DeVos depicted as Ruby. This depiction exemplifies how little understanding of racial discrimination has been achieved in America.

Had it not been for racial subjugation, Ruby Bridges would not have needed an escort by federal marshals to attend a hitherto segregated public school in New Orleans. Had it not been for racial animosity, Barbara Henry would not have taught her in an isolated setting; whose integrity of hers led her to provide this brave girl with the best education she could provide. That teacher Barbara Henry and her student Ruby of hers represent the best of the American heritage. This Bridges experience is also captured in a retrospective titled “Lasting Impact,” which summarizes the historical effect of this heroic act.

Today, segregation is illegal in the United States and no longer occurs. A great deal of racism has left our society, however, not all of it has been eliminated. Hopefully, one day, racism will be a topic only talked about in history textbooks.

DeVos’s cartoon of Bridges is a classic of American culture. This cultural practice is summarized in the following quote from “Fixing Racial Representations of African-Americans at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893” by Bridget Cooke. This excerpt explains why stereotypes are used to minimize the positive reality of African Americans. The whites created the culture of segregation largely to counter the success of the blacks, to mythologize absolute racial difference, to stop the uprising. Racial essentialism, the conception of sets of personal characteristics as biologically determined racial identities, grew in popularity among whites along with the rise of the new black middle class and its increasing visibility, especially in the cities.

This American legacy extends to me too, in Los Angeles, California, where I was born. I am over a decade older than Ruby but attended integrated schools. I too received encouragements from my loving family as well as key teachers along my way.

At John Muir Junior High School, where I attended school, someone always managed to free me from my bus ticket book, leaving me with a mile walk to school. Enter my Barbara Henry, Mrs. Ackerman. Mrs. Ackerman was my science teacher who was a German immigrant. She met me on my way to school and offered me that much appreciated ride to school.

Then she would allow me early access to her classroom. During these morning sessions, she taught me a means of recognizing my own exceptional intelligence through a mini astronomy lesson in which she gave me an eagle’s eye view of my ability to extrapolate. I would leave John Muir and graduate cum laude from a class of 1200. This led to a scholarship to college.

In the fifty-eight years since these mornings with Mrs. Ackerman, I have demonstrated my passion for this American heritage in service to students and staff in a way that has led to:

First woman of my color to become a high school principal in the state of Colorado

Winner of the following distinctions

Milken National Educational Leader

Outstanding Person in Colorado State Schools

educator of the year

Election to the School Board the first of my color and female in more than 140 years

Post Retirement:

Harvard Scholarships

More to count. For now thanks colleagues Ruby, Barbara, Mrs. Ackerman