H. Res. 1713 
In the House of Representatives, U. S., 
November 15, 2010. 
Whereas, on May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme 
Court announced in Brown v. Board of Education (347 
U.S. 483) that, ‘‘in the field of education, the doctrine 
of ‘separate but equal’ has no place’’; 
Whereas the Brown decision recognized as a matter of law 
that the segregation of public schools deprived students 
of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; 
Whereas in 1960, six years after the landmark Brown v. 
Board of Education decision, the promise of access and 
equality within the realm of education remained unfilled 
in New Orleans, Louisiana, and throughout much of the 
Nation; 
Whereas in 1960, the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People (NAACP) contacted Ruby 
Bridges’ family to solicit her participation in the integra-
tion of New Orleans public schools; 
Whereas six years after the Brown decision, on November 14, 
1960, Ruby Bridges, at the age of six, was the first Afri-
can-American child to integrate the previously all-White 
William Frantz Elementary School;
•HRES 1713 EH 
Whereas Ruby Bridges courageously took the first step into 
a desegregated future made possible by the Supreme 
Court’s historic ruling in the Brown decision; 
Whereas Ruby Bridges was the only student in her class for 
an entire year, taught by the only remaining teacher, 
Mrs. Barbara Henry, after the other teachers and stu-
dents withdrew from the school in a gesture of dis-
approval of desegregation; 
Whereas Ruby Bridges was a pioneer in the movement for an 
integrated public education system that afforded equal 
educational opportunities to all, regardless of race; 
Whereas in the face of verbal abuse and unveiled bigotry, 
Ruby Bridges exhibited the courage and equanimity of a 
person many times her age; 
Whereas Norman Rockwell’s The Problem We All Live With 
offers a depiction of Ruby Bridges’ uncanny resolve and 
singularity of purpose in the face of adversity as she at-
tended her first day of school; 
Whereas Ruby Bridges’ story is symbolic of the victorious 
dismantling of school segregation, as well as the full and 
equal participation in United States society to which all 
citizens are entitled; 
Whereas the significance of Ruby Bridges’ actions have been 
acknowledged with numerous awards and recognitions, 
including the Presidential Citizens Medal awarded by 
President William Jefferson Clinton in 2001; and 
Whereas Ruby Bridges was among the first in a line of civil 
rights pioneers that paved the way for the eventual de-
segregation of all public schools in the United States: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
•HRES 1713 EH 
(1) recognizes the 50th anniversary of Ruby 
Bridges desegregating a previously all-White public ele-
mentary school; 
(2) encourages people in the United States to recog-
nize the historical importance of the desegregation of el-
ementary schools and Ruby Bridges, who not only se-
cured integration for William Frantz Elementary School, 
but hundreds of thousands of schools across the Nation; 
and 
(3) commits itself, in the wake of recent challenges, 
to continuing the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education 
by protecting and advancing equal educational oppor-
tunity for all. 
Attest: 
Clerk.