*A Florida school banned the 1998 Disney movie “Ruby Bridges” after one parent complained students should not see scenes of white people’s hatred toward a 6-year-old Black girl.
As EUR previously reported, Bridges experienced racism at its most vile for months after integrating the all-white William Frantz Elementary School. Today, Bridges, 68, is a civil rights activist and speaker. She shared her story in the children’s book, “Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story.” The Disney movie stars Chaz Monet as Bridges and tells how she was among the first Black students to attend Louisiana public schools in 1960.
The Disney movie highlights how Bridges was “subjected to the true ugliness of racism for the very first time” but “guided by the love of her mother and father, Ruby’s heroic struggle for a better education becomes a lesson for us all,” per Disney.
Florida parent Emily Conklin believes the movie is inappropriate for second-grade students and would not let her child watch it. In a formal complaint to school officials, she explains how scenes showing white people hurling racial slurs at Ruby might teach white students to hate Black people, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
READ MORE: Ruby Bridges Children’s Book Now Labeled ‘Critical Race Theory’ by Parent Groups in Tenn. (Video)
The movie is now unavailable to students at North Shore Elementary in St. Petersburg but other schools in the district reportedly have access to it.
Reactions on social media to the movie ban are mixed, with one person commenting on MSN’s report: “White children NEED to see the racist history of segregation. Racism is deeply embedded in our history and it should not ever be whitewashed!”
Another wrote, “Good. How about schools stop showing movies in class and actually teach the kids. Let kids be kids. They will learn our ugly past soon enough.”
A third added, “Is the intention of this film to instruct or to instill guilt in the white children who have had nothing to do with this?”
One commenter noted that the main reason some parents are opposed to the ban is because “they would have to answer the difficult questions of why this was allowed to happen.” The reader added, “Ruby is still living, and these children have grandparents or great grandparents, are probably the same age as she is. Children need to learn about the bravery and poise she showed and how valuable an education truly is.”
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