2/8/2027

Morning Announcements

Morning Meeting Agenda

Mon · Social Studies Tue · Literacy Wed · Science Thu · Math Fri · ROAR + Houses
Social Studies of the Day

She was six years old

Today’s Black History Month feature wasn’t a president or a general. She was a first-grader — about the age of our youngest Lions — who walked into a school building and changed the country.

Photo of Ruby Bridges Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Meet Ruby Bridges! A long time ago, some schools only let in white children. When Ruby was just six years old, she became the very first Black student at her school — and some grown-ups yelled mean things at her every day.

Ruby was brave and kept going to school anyway. She wanted to learn, just like you.

Ruby Bridges walked to school every day, kept learning, and never gave up
Let’s talk
  • Ruby was your age when this happened. How do you think she felt walking into school that first day?
  • She had special helpers walk with her to keep her safe. Who helps keep YOU safe at school?
  • Why is it important that every kid gets to go to school?
Reveal a factHide the fact
Ruby had one special teacher, Mrs. Henry, who taught just her, alone in the classroom, for a whole year. Ruby never missed a single day of school!
Try it

Walk brave! Let’s all walk in a line, heads held high, just like Ruby did every morning. Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared — it means you keep walking anyway.

Mystery activist: Born in Mississippi in 1954, the same year the Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional. Four years later, one federal court order made her, at age six, the only Black student at her new school — escorted daily by U.S. marshals through screaming crowds.

Who is she?Hide
Photo of Ruby Bridges Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Ruby Bridges — November 14, 1960, William Frantz Elementary School, New Orleans. She was one of six Black students in the city to pass a special exam; she was the only one who chose that particular school. She’s still alive today, and still speaks to students about her experience.

Here’s the legal chain behind that day. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional. Louisiana fought that ruling for six more years before a federal judge finally forced integration to begin.

Timeline: 1954 Supreme Court ruling, six years of resistance, 1960 Ruby Bridges integrates William Frantz
Let’s talk
  • Six years passed between the ruling and Ruby’s first day. What does that gap tell you about how change actually happens?
  • Ruby thought the screaming crowd outside her school was a Mardi Gras parade. Why might a six-year-old interpret it that way?
  • Ruby Bridges is still alive today. Why might it matter that this isn’t only “old” history?
Reveal the answersHide the answers
A Supreme Court ruling changes the law instantly, but changing what actually happens in communities can take years of enforcement, lawsuits, and courage from real people willing to go first. Ruby’s Mardi Gras guess makes sense: New Orleans crowds, barricades, and police were things she associated with celebration, not danger — a child’s frame for an adult’s crisis. And her still being alive is exactly the point: civil rights history isn’t a closed chapter from long ago. The six-year-old in that photograph could be someone’s grandmother today.
Try it

Perspective shift! With a partner, retell Ruby’s first day of school entirely from a six-year-old’s point of view — what she’d notice, what she’d be confused by, what she’d be proud of. Leave out anything an adult would explain that a child wouldn’t know yet.

Additional Notes/Activities

If additional activities are needed for the Morning Meeting, they will be added here.