The Jonas Brothers
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And it was very well received, obviously, nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and it won the 1998 Humanities Prize for the screenplay.
Now, this movie was in the news back in 2023 when a Florida parent filed a complaint with their school district saying the film was not appropriate for second graders to watch because it might teach them that, quote, white people hate black people, unquote.
And properly, the suggestion to ban the film was not approved by a committee of teachers, parents, community members, and a library and media technology specialist, which I don't know anything about that job, but it sounds like a job I'd like, after watching the movie with the parents' objection in mind.
So thankfully, some people understand that history should be taught so it doesn't repeat itself.
But it is true that the film includes racially sensitive language and themes, so I could definitely see some discretion being advised, but movies like these are important and factually correct.
Beyond just the movie, Ruby Bridges is forever immortalized in the Norman Rockwell painting, The Problem We All Live In, an iconic and startling image of the civil rights movement that at one time was displayed in the White House.
She's also the subject of the Laurie McKenna song, Ruby's Shoes.
Bridges is 71 years old and still lives in New Orleans with her husband and four sons.
And it's a Women's Hall of Fame inductee with two schools named after her, one in Alameda, California, and the other in Woodinville, Washington.
Before we were assigned it for the podcast, had you ever heard of this movie?
They do it so well, but I didn't know about the story.
I knew about multiple integration stories because there are several stories like this from across usually the South at the time.
But this one specifically, no, I think I'd heard the name.
I'd heard the name Ruby Bridges, but didn't know the story behind it.