Civil Rights activist Ruby Bridges visited the Ruby Bridges Elementary (RBE) School Monday, Nov. 14, on the 62nd anniversary of her courageous walk to help desegregate public schools in America.

Bridges was on hand to help her namesake school celebrate the inaugural Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, in honor of her first day of school at the newly integrated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, LA when she was just six years old. Her walk to school became national news and turned her into a national icon for the Civil Rights movement.

The Walk to School Day event started with an assembly that included a presentation from the RBE Student Council and school principal. Bridges followed with a speech offering words of encouragement to the student body. Music group, Music Notes, capped off the assembly with a performance of their song, “Walk Like Ruby Did,” for the students and Bridges.

After the assembly, students walked out of the school’s black gates, down the walkway and entered school through the front gate. As they entered the school, several students held signs that read, “I walk like Ruby to end...” with each student finishing the phrase with their own words. One student wrote on her sign, “I walk like Ruby to end hunger.”

Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft and Alameda Unified Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi were also in attendance at the event and spoke to the students.

The Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day aims to encourage students to take part in their own forms of activism to bring an end to racism and all forms of bullying. The event was sponsored by AAA. The event was created after a question from a group of AAA School Safety Patrollers from Martin Elementary in South San Francisco, according to the Ruby Bridges Foundation.

Walk to School Day events were also held at Martin Elementary and Ruby Bridges Elementary in Woodinville, Wash.

RBE, located 351 Jack London Ave., opened in 2006.

To learn more about Civil Rights activist Ruby Bridges, visit https://rubybridges.foundation.