Both of our children are fascinated with the historical aspects of race relations in America. I haven’t quite figured out how it all goes together in their brains, but I suppose for them, like for me, the idea that fifty years ago it was okay to treat people as less than human because of the color of their skin seems tremendously hard to imagine. Drinking from a different water fountain?? Using a different rest room?? Racial equality still needs much improvements in America but oh, how far it seems we’ve come. I know that I am like many other Americans today when I choose our family’s churches and schools based on their inclusion. And though many still harbor hate in their hearts, it is becoming less and less okay to do so.

So it is with awe and interest that our kids learn the stories of Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman and dream dreams of how they too may help to establish real equality the world round.

A beautiful player in this historical saga is little Ruby Bridges, famed for being the first black child to attend William Frantz public school. She attended flanked by four Federal Marshals for protection throughout her entire first year. Robert Coles children’s story is beautifully written and illustrated and we read it over and over and over. We recently discovered Ruby’s autobiography called “Through my eyes” telling the story in news photos and her own words which has added a whole new level of interest and meaning. Even the white children whose parents refused to boycott the school for it’s single token back child were pelted with eggs and rocks for their stand for racial equality. Absolutely unbelievable!!

Quinn pointed out the significance this week as we read the autobiography: “Mom, I’m a sort of backwards Ruby Bridges!! I’m the only white kid at a black school and it’s hard for me too!” Yes, son. And despite occasional stones, lots of stares, giggles and teasing, stroking and touching . . . . .we’re pretty lucky. No federal marshals are needed; we are far safer than Ruby Bridges ever was. We have angels all around though and they work overtime for N and Q as they travel to their personal William Frantz. Just a few minutes from home, down Palm Oil Avenue and through the Place of the Pig, to primary school we go.