Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to integrate into an all-white public school in the American South in 1960, will be the featured speaker at the 10th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast at Texas A&M’s Memorial Student Center Bethancourt Ballroom Thursday (Jan. 19) at 9:30 a.m.
Organizers with the Memorial Student Center Woodson Black Awareness Committee (MSC WBAC) said the event will serve as a formal way to reflect on the life, legacy and accomplishments of Dr. King. In addition to honoring King, WBAC Chair Marquette Pradia said the event will make his legacy relevant to the university and surrounding communities.
Bridges, who became the subject of the Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With for her walk into the William Frantz School in New Orleans escorted by U.S. federal marshals as a 6-year-old, went on to receive the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001* for her efforts. The award cited Bridges as a “small, brave child” who “walked with courage past angry protestors and into the history books as the African American child who integrated her New Orleans school.”
The event will also include a performance by award-winning poet Prentice Powell and a catered breakfast.
Tickets can be purchased through the MSC Box Office.
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Media contact: Marquette Pradia, Chair, MSC Woodson Black Awareness Committee, 979-492-2458
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