Editor's Note: Elisabeth Griffith is the author of two acclaimed books on women's history, Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality: 1920–2020 and In Her Own Right: the Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She has a PhD in history, and publishes a blog at Pink Threads on Substack.
On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked through an angry crowd into a school emptied of other students.
“Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras,” Ruby recalled as an adult. “There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.”