Article June 18, 2001 Issue

WAY TO GO, RUBY BRIDGES

Julia Pabst

I've found the account of Ruby Bridges illuminating. She was a six-year-old African American girl in 1960, when she was one of the first children involved in desegregating the public schools in New Orleans in the United States. Every day she went to school accompanied by US federal marshals to protect her from the verbal abuse and death threats of crowds opposed to school integration. A prominent psychiatrist examined her repeatedly over many months and marveled at finding her truly cheerful and serene. Then he discovered that she prayed twice a day for her tormentors. When asked why she did this, she answered, "Because they need praying for." She explained, "If you're going through what they're doing to you, you're the one who should be praying for them." She had learned in church that Jesus went through a lot of trouble. He said about the people who were causing the trouble, "Forgive them because they don't know what they're doing" (see Luke 23:34). As an adult, Ruby is a mother and is active in public service.

(From Robert Coles, "The Inexplicable Prayers of Ruby Bridges," Christianity Today, August 9, 1985)

A correction was made in the July 2, 2001 Sentinel: "In the issue of June 18 on page 21, the sidebar entitled "Way to go, Ruby Bridges" was written by Julia Pabst. Robert Coles's article in Christianity Today, "The Inexplicable Prayers of Ruby Bridges," was Mrs. Pabst's source for her article."

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