Can you believe this was only 63yrs ago!

[Night409]

On this day 63 years ago Ruby Bridges was the first black child to attend an all white school.

The hate and deaths threats made by grown adults to a little 6 year old child is absolutely vile.

It’s hard enough to imagine these threats and hate made towards an adult but how could anyone do this to such a young child!

Many of these people are still alive today.

I’m not sure why I’m posting, I just thought I’d share.

her parents lost their jobs for sending her to the school

While segregation wasn't enshrined in law in the UK didn't mean it didn't exist. This from 1963 in the UK.
https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/bhm-heroes/the-bristol-bus-boycott-of-1963/

No idea why that link seems to have a warning?

I expect so. Maya Angelo quoted "we did what we did, knowing what we knew. And when we knew better, we did better".

I'm a bit taken aback and disappointed by some posters lack of basic history .

Thanks for sharing OP.

Ruby and her parents were amazing.
She wasn’t the first child to attend an all white school in the US though. She was the first Black child to attend that particular school. Louisiana was very slow to desegregate.
This was in 1960. Eisenhower sent troops into Little Rock Arkansas in 1957 and the Brown vs Topeka ruling was 1954. Some parts of the Deep South were desegregating before that because they could see which way the wind was blowing too.

I think what often gets missed with these examples is that these parents and children weren’t fighting for a better education for themselves, but for others. They often sacrificed their child getting a good education for the wider good. It often gets simplified into “they wanted their child to go to the white school because it was better” when really they and their children challenged a system of segregation that they felt was deeply unfair and were willing to put themselves in harms way and into a school where they were going to be treated unfairly and educated pretty poorly in order to bring down that system so that future generations could have a better education.

You would think that there would be no more racist people left.
I guess it goes down through the generations.

It’s simplistic to think that racism purely exists as a few racist people. Structural/institutional racism is alive and kicking in the U.K. still - systems and processes that act to disadvantage people of colour. We have nothing to be smug about here.

I’m a POC and truly believe that it’s class which is the significantly bigger issue here. I truly don’t believe my children (who would all identify as black) have it any worse than any other working-class children due to skin colour.

You always see articles about bad outcomes for WC POC which is then inevitably countered with what about the WC white children. How is no one adding up it all comes down to being poor above all else?

In this country everyone could love you better for being black/gay/whatever other characteristic and until the class system is gone it won’t make a jot of difference to most lives

I'm 62 and I lived in a small village in Devon as a child. I never saw a black person until I was 19.

I lived in a Devon market town in the early to mid 60s. At least two black girls at my grammar school that I can recall.

of course it was only 60 odd years ago - because it was in America. Rosa Parks on the bus was also 60 odd years ago. And George Floyd was murdered in this decade we are currently in

America is hugely behind in terms of racism
and it negatively impacts the UK

Isn't that in the USA?

I remember non white children in an all white school in the early 60's.

Yes this story is about America - context would have been useful for this primarily British site 😀

Heldinadream
**
There was of course racism here, but not segregation.

Don't be so sure. My parents were on a road trip in the southern states in the 1980s. Stopped for breakfast in a diner. Black couple already seated. The waitress came to my parents first, who pointed out the other couple were first. She continued to press for their order, they insisted the other couple should be served first. The waitress walked away and went to another table. Eventually, the black couple got up and left, as did my parents.

I doubt she had any choice. It would have been the adults in her life who made the decision to send her there.
To the poster who wondered if any of the racists now regret their former behaviour, I seriously doubt that too.

That was in America. In the UK there is a long history of working class people living with black people.
ehen black American servicemen were posted here in the Second World War, they were treated as equals by the British public. They took those experiences back with them and to some extent it informed the equality movement in the USA https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/civil-rights-movement/when-england-taught-the-yanks-how-to-treat-their-african-americans/.

Which systems and processes?

What a ridiculous question - one that smacks of shit stirring but in good faith

Let's start with a simple process - recruiting. It's been shown over and over again that people with names that look none white will be more likely to get rejected

They test this by sending in cvs that are identical in all bar the name

How many systems and processes would you need to see racism in before you accept it exists in British society ?

Thank you. I didn't say racism does not exist in British society, it exists everywhere, in any society. As does discrimination for any reason you can think of.
You are talking about 'Structural/institutional racism' and 'systems and processes that act to disadvantage people of colour' - any of these are liable to prosecution in the UK. My DCs have been subjected to racism and still are from time to time but I wouldn't say that racism is condoned or tolerated by institutions in this country, hence my question.

It may not be tolerated / but in practise it happens certainly in the UK. Partly because It's easy to say and very hard to do

In my example it's a process problem because it's been repeatedly proven that to avoid bias in recruitment the CV should have the name ( and possibly school names and home addresses ) stripped before being passed to the recruiting manager but this doesn't happen in many cases

Whilst it's easy to see that o average people of colour are disadvantaged by none blind recruitment, it's almost impossible to prove a single case

Im shocked so many people haven't heard of her, this is a VERY well known moment in history

In US history. And let's be honest, there are thousands of 'very well known moments in history.' You can't know them all. And if people haven't heard of her, it's not that well known.

You are talking about 'Structural/institutional racism' and 'systems and processes that act to disadvantage people of colour' - any of these are liable to prosecution in the UK.

So at very least the Met police have been found to be institutionally racist, 30 years after the death of Stephen Lawrence. There’s a long running campaign looking at racism in social work - both in relation to racism towards social workers by employers and in practice in communities. It can be very hard to identify (and not conflate with other issues) and to change culture and values. It’s a nonsense to say legislation alone has done much to challenge and change racism.

'It’s a nonsense to say legislation alone has done much to challenge and change racism.'
But it's complete nonsense to say it hasn't.

@boudiccathecat
Have you ever heard of Enoch Powell, MP?

anth1001.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/enoch-powell_speech.pdf
This is his infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech. Not for the faint-hearted.

I can well believe it,it was in the USA.

I know we have racism here,but nothing like the scale they have there.