FOLSOM, Calif. — Ten institutions within the Folsom Cordova Unified School District (FCUSD) will host walks to school Thursday morning to honor a civil rights activist.
On Nov. 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges walked to school in New Orleans, Louisiana, flanked by the U.S. Marshals Service. Bridges, a 6-year-old African American girl, was about to attend her first day of first grade at the recently desegregated William Frantz Elementary School, and law enforcement accompanied her due to concerns for her safety amid protests from white parents and officials.
The following 10 FCUSD schools will participate in Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day on Thursday morning to celebrate her and as a testament to civil rights, equality and the power of education, according to district officials:
Elementary schools
- Alder Creek
- Blanche Sprentz
- Carl Sundahl
- Cordova Meadows
- Cordova Villa
- Mangini Ranch
- Rancho Cordova
- Williamson
Middle schools
- Folsom Middle School
- Sutter Middle School
In 2023, only Mangini Ranch Elementary School participated in the walk, according to the district. Elton Thomas, Folsom Middle School’s registrar and adviser for the Black Student Union, said he hopes the entire school district will eventually engage in the celebration. There are 36 schools within the FCUSD.
“I think it's important that kids know where we came from, and how blessed they are to be able to be in a school with different races, and that we can go to school and just be free,” Thomas said. “We want to make sure that we remember the people who made it possible for us.”
Parents are welcome to participate, he said. Thomas will meet fellow staff and students around 8 a.m. at Oak Hills Church to walk the half of a block to Folsom Middle School before work Thursday morning.
“We want to make this a huge event, and we want students to know that we, as adults, think it's as important as well,” he said.
Bridges, now 70, became a travel agent for American Express after high school, according to the National Women’s History Museum. In 2011, she viewed Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With” painting, depicting her walking into the Louisiana school as a young girl, next to President Barack Obama at the White House.
“I think it’s fair to say that, if it hadn’t been for you guys, I might not be here, and we wouldn’t be looking at this together,” Obama, America’s first Black president, said to Bridges at the time.
