Lucille Bridges, mother of civil rights activist Ruby Bridges, dies at 86

Lucille Bridges, the mother of civil rights activist Ruby Bridges, has died.

In 1960, Lucille walked with her then-6-year-old daughter past crowds screaming racial epithets as she became the first Black student to integrate an all-white New Orleans elementary school.

About Ruby Bridges

Her daughter went on to become an icon of the Civil Rights Movement but Ruby Bridges has credited her parents as the forces behind her historical achievement.

U.S. Deputy Marshals escort 6-year-old Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, in this November 1960, file photo. Bridges’ mother, Lucille, died on Tuesday. (Public Domain Image)

“My parents are the real heroes,” the U.S. Marshals Service once quoted her as saying during a ceremony at an art gallery showing the painting. “They (sent me to that public school) because they felt it was the right thing to do.”

Mayor LaToya Cantrell recognized Lucille Bridges’ contributions in a statement:

“Today we mourn the loss of one of the mothers of the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans with the passing of Lucille Bridges — mother of five, including Ruby Bridges,” Cantrell said. “May she rest in God’s perfect peace.”

Cantrell said Ruby’s father, Abon Bridges, was initially reluctant to send his daughter to William Frantz Elementary School as a first-grader in 1960, at the request of the NAACP. But his wife insisted. According to the National Women’s History Museum, Lucille Bridges wanted her daughter to have the education she never had. She walked her daughter to school every day, the museum said.

“Lucille’s strength was unbounded during this period,” Cantrell said, adding: “Lucille insisted, seeing the action as an opportunity to help all Black children, and walked Ruby, with federal marshals, past chanting and taunting white protesters and to the schoolhouse. Mother and daughter both revealed their character and courage.”

Born to sharecroppers in Mississippi and only receiving up to a 3rd grade education, Bridges was fervent that her daughter received the same education and opportunities as her white counterparts.

The Bridges eventually moved to New Orleans in search of better work and education opportunities for their family, according to the National Women’s History Museum. Abon Bridges died in 1978.

Friends and family say Mrs. Bridges was an amazing human being with no hatred or bitterness about her experience.

“Lucille was so humble, and never wanted any recognition, only a better world for all children,” said Sissy Lappin to WGNO.

Lucille Bridges was 86 years old.