Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges Thanks Federal Marshall Charles Burks, 91, Who Escorted Her to School

FYIFrom HuffPo Black Voices:

Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges, who as a 6-year-old helped end public school segregation in the South, was reunited Thursday with one of the federal marshals who had escorted her past angry crowds so she could attend a previously all-white school.

Bridges, who in 1960 became the first black child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans, met with Charles Burks at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, which was filming the pair for its permanent exhibit called “The Power of Children.” Burks, now 91, is the only one of the four marshals who escorted Bridges to and from school who is still alive.

“Thank you Charlie for doing what was right at a time when it might not have been the easiest thing to do,” she told Burks.

See photos, including their reunion, and read more here.

 

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