Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day

Community Event

Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day gives children the chance to celebrate Ruby’s courage by walking to school and is the perfect opportunity to teach children about the civil rights movement and make connections to today’s collective efforts for change.

November 14, 2025

Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day is Friday, November 14!

Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day will be held this year on Friday, November 14. This day honors the living legacy of the civil rights activist who — in 1960, at just 6 years old! — etched her name in history when she walked to school and integrated all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Since then, Ruby has become a national icon for her courageous act. The goal of Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day is to inspire kids to make positive changes in their school and community.

Visit the Ruby Bridges Foundation website to register your event and get event planning resources.

Order incentives

Order ahead of time to make sure you have incentives ready for Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day! Incentives include special Ruby Bridges stickers and bookmarks along with standard incentives, i.e., stickers, reflective shoelaces, pencils, comics, bookmarks, activity sheets, and coloring books.

Portland Public Schools and David Douglas, Parkrose, and Reynolds school districts

Visit Oregon Safe Routes to School's webpage to order incentives for schools in Portland Public Schools and David Douglas, Parkrose, and Reynolds school districts. Order by Friday, November 7.

Centennial School District

Please email Ian Rees, Centennial School District (CSD) Safe Routes to School Coordinator, by Friday, October 24 to order incentives for CSD schools.

Additional resources

About Ruby

In 1945 the US Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. the Board of Education ended racial segregation in public schools. However, southern states continued to resist. Ruby spent kindergarten in a segregated classroom. In 1960 a federal court ordered Louisiana schools to desegregate. The school district created an entrance exam to see if African American students could attend an all-white school. Ruby and five other students passed the exam. The six students were to be sent to two different all-white schools. The school district delayed their start, and Ruby's first day of school was November 14, 1960. A few days before, the two African American students who were going to attend with Ruby decided to stay in their home school. Ruby braved Frantz Elementary School on her own.

How Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day began

In May 2018, a group of fifth-graders from Martin Elementary School in South San Francisco, California, learned about Ruby and asked their school board to pass a resolution making November 14 Ruby Bridges Day. The San Mateo County Office of Education Safe Routes to School team met with students about making it a walk to school day and invited them to present this proposal to the San Mateo County Board of Education.

A resolution was passed endorsing November 14 as Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day in San Mateo County. When November 14 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the event is celebrated on the following Wednesday. The Safe Routes to School team invited other schools to join the Martin Elementary School students in honoring Ruby's courage by celebrating this walk to school day. Fourteen schools participated in 2018 and 25 participated in 2019.

San Mateo County put together a website full of resources including lesson plans, social media templates, and more. Here are a few suggested ones to start with:

San Mateo County's resources website to share with your students
Listen to Ruby talk about her courageous journey and events leading up to it on this podcast: Through My Eyes: Ruby Bridges on the Struggle for Racial Justice

Share Ruby's story

To learn more about the Ruby Bridges Foundation, go to rubybridges.com and follow Ruby on Instagram at @RubyBridgesOfficial.

If you'd like to share Ruby's story with your students, you can order her 1999 memoir, Through My Eyes, here. Click here to access The Power of Story, a catalog of diverse books for readers of all ages.

The Creative Company has given permission for SRTS practitioners to share their book Ruby Head High: Ruby Bridges' First Day of School at no cost. You can print these pages for a storyboard walking activity, to share with students and schools, and more! The Creative Company does ask that you please tag them in any photos related to their use: @thecreativecompanypublishing on Facebook and @the_creative_company_books on Instagram.

Learn more about Portland's Story

This is also an opportunity to learn and share about Portland's history of desegregation with your students and children. We encourage you to research about Portland's history with segregated neighborhoods, desegregation with school districts, and busing. Here are some recommended resources: