Ruby Bridges and the New Orleans School Desegregation Crisis of 1960

In 1964, Norman Rockwell illustrated a centerfold image for Look magazine that showed six-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted to William Frantz Elementary School in 1960 by four federal marshals. This image has become one of the most iconic depictions of the Civil Rights' Movement. Bridges and six other New Orleans children were selected to become the first black children integrate two white schools in the entire city. Three children were placed in McDonogh Elementary school and three were placed at Frantz. However, the other two children transferred to all-black schools before the first day leaving Bridges to face the crowd alone. In an interview for PBS, Bridges recounts thinking that it was Mardi Gras upon seeing barricades, police, and the large crowd. That same day, hundreds of white children were taken out of the school and teachers began to quit. From January 1961 to May 1961, Ruby was the only child attending Frantz.

Source: 

Rare Historical Photos, "Ruby Bridges, the First African American to Attend a White Elementary School the Deep South, 1960" 2016., USA

Rockwell, Norman , “"The Problem We All Live With" 1964