Black History Month reflects on all the accomplishments black people have made. It shows others that just because black people weren’t in your history textbooks for their minor and major accomplishments, doesn’t mean that they didn’t do anything at all.

Ruby Bridges is an iconic woman, who accomplished big things at a very small age. At only six years old, she attended an all-white school in a nation separated by hate.

In the 1950s to 1960s, America was divided among the races. Black and white people used facilities separate from one another, due to the Jim Crow laws. Schools were segregated as well. The student population of schools weren’t as diverse as the present. Black people had to go to schools specifically for colored people. Intermixing races in schools at that time didn’t seem like a possibility.

But Bridges broke the barrier by attending William Frantz School, a previously all-white elementary school. As she walked to school, police marshalls and her own mother would have to escort her to ensure her safety. Hate would be thrown at this young child, all because of the color of her skin. But she fought through it all and gained her education in a desegregated school, despite multiple forces against her attending.

Bridges was a big part of the Civil Rights Movement, and she proved herself as a brave individual.