Civil rights icon, activist and New York Times best-selling author Ruby Bridges will speak Oct. 4 at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Bridges will speak at noon in the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
Her appearance is part of the Dr. Henry H. Parker Speaker Series, which honors the longtime UT Martin philosophy faculty member. The presentation is free and open to the public. Registration is required and can be completed on the event’s website at www.utm.edu/parkerspeakerseries.
Bridges was the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school in Louisiana. Her life is summarized on the National Women’s History Museum website, which notes “she was a class of one” that year because only one teacher would accept her as a student, but she never missed school. A famous 1964 Norman Rockwell painting titled “The Problem We Live With” captured the image of Bridges’ first day at school and symbolized a chapter in the American school desegregation story.
Bridges will tell her story during a moderated conversation from a stage on Pat Head Summitt Court in the Elam Center. Persons attending the event will go through security measures before entering the Elam Center. Wanding procedures will be conducted by UT Martin Skyhawk ROTC Battalion cadets accompanied by officers from the university’s Department of Public Safety.
No bags, purses, or backpacks are allowed. The use of any recording devices during the event, included but not limited to cell phones, video cameras or digital recorders is not permitted during the presentation.
Bridges’ appearance is part of the university’s annual homecoming week celebration Sept. 30-Oct. 6. Additional information about UT Martin Homecoming can be found at alumni.utm.edu/homecoming-24.
