Ruby Bridges

Alyssa Carpenter & Britney Headrick

Junior Division
Group Website
Student-Composed Words: 1,176
Process Paper: 424
 We chose our topic by looking at a list of example topics. From that list, we each came up

with our own topics that we thought were interesting. We each briefly described the topics we

had chosen to each other, and narrowed our topics down to two: Ruby Bridges and Brown vs. the

Board of Education. We later decided our topic would be Ruby Bridges because we were very

interested in her story.

We started our research on Ruby Bridges by looking at different websites, but

only to get a general idea of what she was known for. We then got her book, Through My

Eyes, which was by far our most important resource, and it answered many of our questions.

We found many other books, but most of them were childrens books with a small amount of

information. However, some of the books did have some important information. For example,

these books were very helpful: Travels With Charley, Ruby Bridges, The Story Of Ruby

Bridges, and Twelve Children Who Changed The World. We used many websites in our

research as well. The most helpful website was biography.com. From there, we navigated to

several other websites and found primary resources from the La Crosse Library and from the

internet.

We chose to do a website because we had both done an exhibit last year, so we

wanted to explore new ways to present our information. We are very glad we did so because we

learned how to use many different tools to make our website look organized and professional.

We used our notes, other information saved on USB drives, and videos and pictures that we

found, and uploaded it all to our website. We then used a wide variety of tools to make it easy to

read and organized.

 The life of Ruby Bridges clearly relates to the 2017 NHD theme of Taking a

Stand in History. Firstly, Ruby Bridges stood up for desegregation in schools and paved the way

for future colored students by being the first African American to attend William Frantz.

Secondly, she inspired others to fight against segregation in schools, and she gave other students

the courage to stand up for what they believed in. Lastly, she started the Ruby Bridges

Foundation in 1999 to create change through education, to inspire children, and to eliminate

racism. Therefore, the life of Ruby Bridges obviously relates to the 2017 NHD theme of Taking

a Stand in History.