Awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001 by President Bill Clinton
Became the namesake of an elementary school in Alameda, Calif․, in 2006
Formed The Ruby Bridges Foundation in 1999, a non-profit that supports numerous educational efforts
Her parents, despite initial hesitation, responded to a call from the NAACP in 1960 that requested African American school children to volunteer to move to an all-White school in New Orleans
Quote: "I started The Ruby Bridges Foundation in hopes of bringing parents back into the schools and taking a more active role in their kids' education․"
Quote: "Though I did not know it then, nor would I come to realize it for many years, what transpired in the fall of 1960 in New Orleans would forever change my life and help shape a nation․"
After years of working as a travel agent in New Orleans, she would eventually turn to public speaking and activism full-time by the late '90s
Made national headlines as the first African American public school student to attend a previously all-Caucasian elementary school following integration
After enrolling at William Frantz Elementary School in November of 1960, only one teacher, Barbara Henry, would agree to teach the young child