Wisdom is a gift but has nothing to do with age. That was probably the case with me.
— Ruby Bridges
I believe in my prayers.
We have to take care of each other's children.
I remember turning onto the street. I saw barricades and police officers and, just, people everywhere. When I saw all of that, I immediately thought that it was Mardi Gras. I had no idea that they were here to keep me out of the school.
Evil isn't prejudiced. It doesn't care what you look like; it just wants a place to rest. It's up to you whether you give it that place.
Racism is a form of hate. We pass it on to our young people. When we do that, we are robbing children of their innocence.
The greatest lesson I learned that year in Mrs. Henry's class was the lesson Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to teach us all: Never judge people by the color of their skin. God makes each of us unique in ways that go much deeper.
A lot of my strength came from my upbringing.
Throughout my life, my prayers have actively sustained me - held me up, carried me through.
We must absolutely take care of one another.
When I think about our babies today and them not being safe in school, I think that should be the next civil rights movement, you know, is to ban the assault weapons so that our babies can be safe.
We all have a common enemy, and it is evil.
If kids have the oportunity to come together to get to know one another, they can judge for themselves who they want their friends to be. All children should have that choice. We, as adults, shouldn't make those choices for children. That's how racism starts.
You cannot look at a person and tell whether they're good or bad.
What we, as African Americans, stood on was our faith.
I believe that we have to come together, and we have to rely on the goodness of each other.
If you really think about it, if we begin to teach history exactly the way that it happened - good, bad, ugly, no matter what - I believe that we're going to find that we are closer, more connected than we are apart.
Evil looks like you and I. I know what evil looks like, and I know that it comes in all shades and colors.
We may not all be equally guilty. But we are all equally responsible for building a decent and just society.
The people I passed every morning as I walked up the school's steps were full of hate. They were white, but so was my teacher, who couldn't have been more different from them. She was one of the most loving people I had ever known.
Racism is a grown-up disease, and we should stop using our kids to spread it.
