Through My Eyes

Very informative. Love this book and so did my granddaughter

This is one of the most powerful indictments of segregation I've ever read. The perspective of a little girl (now grown up, of course) who endured a brutal year of merciless isolation, taunting and threats just to get an education would be powerful enough. But Bridges' telling of her own story is almost the least powerful element of the book in some ways. After all, even under the best of circumstances, how many of us can remember events from when we were six? And Bridges' telling also shows some signs of possible repression and dissociation due to the traumatic nature of her experiences. But still, the other voices and especially the pictures in the book augment and amplify Bridges' own voice creating a resounding cry for decency and justice.Bridges mingles her personal story with the story of Civil Rights in general. She was born in the same year as the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. The Board of Education, but even by the time she reached six years old, less than two percent of southern schools had been integrated. Ruby, up to that point, had had a loving and stable childhood, spending summers with her sharecropping grandparents and looking after her younger siblings. That love and responsibility, as well as the unquestioning obedience that had been drilled into her, probably account for a large part of the reason Bridges was able to survive her ordeal as well as she did.Bridges, supplemented by excerpts from her mother, her teacher, the New York Times, and other newspapers, and author John Steinbeck, then tells of that brutal first year in which she was the only black child at William Frantz Public School. She was escorted by U.S. Marshalls every day for most of the year. Most of the other parents pulled their children out of school after she showed up. Crowds of protestors gathered around the school each day shouting things too obscene to be printed in the newspaper, holding up illiterate signs, and threatening death in various forms. Much of the crowd was made up of "housewives" - women who presumably had children of their own.A small handful of white children did continue to attend the school. They too were met with protesters who threw rocks and eggs at them. Some parents were forced to give up sending their children to that school. In any case, little Ruby didn't even known they were there for most of the year because the prejudiced principal would not allow them in the same class. And so tiny Ruby learned all by herself with only her heroic teacher, Barbara Henry, for company.Eventually things did get better. Child psychologist Robert Coles began meeting with Ruby to give her an outlet for her experiences. Teacher Barbara Henry was able to prevail and have the other white children come to her class part of each day. Gradually the protests died down and the Marshalls went away. By the time Ruby started second grade she arrived to find the white children back in school and even several other black children. But no more Barbara Henry who had essentially been driven back north, a persona non grata. Bridges concludes by bringing us up to date on her largely successful and happy life since those infamous days. She basically has no regrets for being the one to pave the way for other black children, but at the same time there is a hint of mourning for a lost childhood.Possibly even more than the voices in the story, the pictures provide the power of the story. There's the pictures of tiny little Ruby in her fresh white dress and the bow in her hair being led by her mother and the Marshalls. On the other hand, there are the pictures of the protesters - hoards of teenage boys laughing like it's a carnival, a grown man holding a black doll in a casket, people throwing rocks and eggs at white children who continued to attend the school, a woman threatening to strangle the Methodist minister who continued to bring his daughter to school, the cute little white girl holding up a cross, another cross burning while white-hooded men look on. Pictures to be proud of for sure. I wonder what those participants think of now when they look back on those pictures? What do their children think?But amidst the ugly and horrifying pictures there are some beautiful and heartening ones too. There are photos of Civil Rights marches with black faces mingled with white faces. There's the picture of Ruby with her teacher, and a picture of a smiling Eleanor Roosevelt who sent an encouraging letter to the Bridges family. But the most heartening photos are the two showing a smiling Ruby with her white classmates after she was finally allowed to meet them, and therein lies the seed of hope for the generation to come.The South, we are told, was and is not racist. The Civil War was fought over "states' rights". The struggles surrounding Jim Crow laws, lynching and segregation were about preserving the "Southern Way of Life". Read this book and think about that phrase a moment. Is a "way of life" that involves threatening a six-year-old girl because of the color of her skin a "way of life" worth fighting for?

This book is being used for my college class.

Had to read this for class. So glad this book was required. She was so brave as a little girl and is now an inspiration. Recommend this book!

I got this book for me but also my son during Black History month so we could learn more together. It was perfect. I enjoyed it very much.

Very interesting. It’s great for kids, but you will still have to stop and explain things.It’s a great way to learn about history from a child’s perspective, and a great way to open the dialogue about race with your own kids.

This beautiful story is of a wonderful little girl and her heroine of a mother against the beastly white racial ignorance, fear, hatred, and stupidity. As a white man, I am grateful that there are white as well as black heroes and heroines in this book, but the beauty of a little girl's simplicity, and her mother's courage, and her father's reluctant but also brave support--needs to be a story every little girl and every little boy needs to hear as they are becoming who they will be. I want my children and grandchildren to know Ruby and her mother, and determine they will never treat anyone mean and cruel again.

Ruby's "telling" of the events that led up to the Norman Rockwell painting adds more meaning to his capturing the history. So glad you added your story, that is, what led up to that faithful day and what happened afterwards. This book is an important part of American history and should be on every elementary school book list. And every adult should read it too!

A shocking but courageous book about history that seems unreal now. Everyone should read this!

If you only need one story to explain the civil rights movement in the us , this is the one

Really good book. Such an important story and great to hear it from Ruby Bridges' perspective. I read it with my 10 year old son and he talked about it loads afterwards.

everyone should read it. A sign of our times

As expected