Portrait of Ruby Bridges

On Nov. 14, 1960, Rudy Bridges then 6 years old became the first Black student to attend a previously all-white elementary school in New Orleans.

Bridges, flanked by U.S. marshals, had to walk past a mob of jeering segregationist protesters and Confederate flags to enter her school. All the white students at the school were pulled from classes and teachers quit — leaving Bridges as the school’s only student.