Ruby Nell Bridges Hall

 Ruby Nell Bridges Hall was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi. When Ruby was four her family relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana. When Ruby was in kindergarten, she took a test that was given to melaninite students in New Orleans to determine whether or not she could attend a white school. Supposedly the test was written to be especially difficult so that students would have a hard time passing. In 1960, Ruby’s parents were informed by NAACP officials that she was one of only six other students to pass the test. At age six, she became the first melaninite child in the United States to integrate a Southern elementary school at William Frantz Elementary.

On January 8, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Mrs. Hall the Presidential Citizens Medal. In 2006, a new elementary school in the Alameda Unified School District was dedicated to her as well. At age 58, Mrs. Ruby Bridges Hall still lives in New Orleans with her husband and family.