November 14, 2024
11:00 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
White Concert Hall
Washburn University
Topeka, Kansas
Join us as we welcome civil rights icon Ruby Bridges to Kansas on November 14 for an inspiring day of reflection, learning, and action. The event will be held in Topeka, Kansas where children from across the state will gather to hear Ruby’s powerful story and participate in a dialogue about social justice, history, and equality.
This event will also commemorate the Ruby Bridges Walk To School, a symbolic walk of unity and strength.
The Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) emailed Kansas schools on Tuesday October 15th, with the live stream application information. Applications for the ten remote livestreams are open to ALL Kansas schools outside of Shawnee, Douglas, Sedgwick, Wyandotte and Johnson Counties.
See the live stream page for details!
Event capacity for this historic event is limited by the venue capacity. Open school registrations for the in person event will be time /date stamped and processed on a first come, first served basis. Schools will receive a status update on their registration within 5-7 business days of submission. Thank you!
Are you interested in volunteering? Sing up using the volunteer button.
We will contact you upon receipt of your completed form.
For more information about how to become a sponsor of A Conversation with Ruby Bridges, please click here.
Keynote Speaker: Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges is a Civil Rights icon, activist, author and speaker who at the age of six was the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school alone in Louisiana. She was born in Mississippi in 1954, the same year the United States Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision ordering the integration of public schools. Her family later moved to New Orleans, where on November 14, 1960, Bridges began attending William Frantz Elementary School, single-handedly initiating the desegregation of public education. Her walk to the front door of the school was immortalized in Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With, in Robert Coles’ book The Story of Ruby Bridges, and in the Disney movie Ruby Bridges.
She established the Ruby Bridges Foundation to provide leadership training programs that inspire youth and community leaders to embrace and value the richness of diversity. Bridges is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NAACP Martin Luther King Award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and honorary doctorate degrees from Connecticut College, College of New Rochelle, Columbia University Teachers College, and Tulane University. Bridges is also the author of Through My Eyes, This Is Your Time, I Am Ruby Bridges, and Dear Ruby, Hear Our Hearts, released in January, 2024. In March, 2024, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
