Ruby Bridges (film) - WikiMili, The Best Wikipedia Reader (2024)

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Ruby Bridges
GenreDrama
Written by Toni Ann Johnson
Directed by Euzhan Palcy
StarringChaz Monet
Penelope Ann Miller
Kevin Pollak
Michael Beach
Music by Patrice Rushen
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Producers Ann Hopkins
Euzhan Palcy (co-producer)
CinematographyJohn Simmons
EditorPaul LaMastra
Running time96 min.
Production companiesMarian Rees Associates
Walt Disney Television
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseJanuary18,1998

Ruby Bridges is a 1998 television film, written by Toni Ann Johnson, directed by Euzhan Palcy and based on the true story of Ruby Bridges, one of the first black students to attend integrated schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1960. As a six-year-old, Bridges was one of four black first-graders, selected on the basis of test scores, to attend previously all-white public schools in New Orleans. Three students were sent to McDonogh 19, and Ruby was the only black child to be sent to William Frantz Elementary School.

Contents

  • Plot
  • Cast
  • Reception
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Plot

Ruby Bridges tells the story of how a six-year-old Black girl integrated a New Orleans segregated school in 1960. Ruby did not achieve this feat alone – there was the NAACP that chose her; four US Marshals who kept back the angry mob of haters bent on lynching her; Barbara Henry, a kind-hearted White teacher who pushed back against her racist superiors and coworkers; Robert Coles, a famous psychiatrist to help her with the stress, and his wife Jane; and, most of all, her courageous mother, who shared the deep faith that gave the girl the strength to persist in spite of the hatred around her and of her father who initially doubted that her daughter should bear being persecuted by segregationists.

Cast

  • Chaz Monet as Ruby Bridges
  • Penelope Ann Miller as Barbara Henry
  • Kevin Pollak as Dr. Robert Coles
  • Diana Scarwid as Miss Woodmere
  • Lela Rochon as Lucielle "Lucy" Bridges
  • Michael Beach as Abon Bridges
  • Jean Louisa Kelly as Jane Coles
  • Peter Francis James as Dr. Broyard
  • Patrika Darbo as Miss Spencer
  • Toni Ann Johnson as Alma Broyard

Reception

The film holds a score of 83% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 6 reviews with an average rating of 6.6/10. [1] The film was nominated for several awards, including an NAACP Image Award. The writer, Toni Ann Johnson, won the 1998 Humanitas Prize for her teleplay. The film also won The Christopher Award. Ruby Bridges is currently available for streaming on Disney+.

In 2023, the film was the subject of a complaint brought by a Florida parent who claimed that the film is not appropriate for school second-graders in because it might teach them that "white people hate Black people". [2] A potential decision to ban the film was not upheld by a committee of teachers, parents, community members and a library media technology specialist after watching the film and reviewing the objection form, as well as the school district policy. [3] [4] [5]

See also

  • Civil rights movement in popular culture
  • The Problem We All Live With , 1964 painting

Related Research Articles

Ruby Bridges (film) - WikiMili, The Best Wikipedia Reader (1)

Ruby Nell Bridges Hall is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African American child to attend formerly whites-only William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on November 14, 1960. She is the subject of a 1964 painting, The Problem We All Live With, by Norman Rockwell.

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A Dry White Season is a 1989 American drama film directed by Euzhan Palcy and starring Donald Sutherland, Jürgen Prochnow, Marlon Brando, Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae and Susan Sarandon. It was written by Colin Welland and Palcy, based upon André Brink's novel A Dry White Season. Robert Bolt also contributed uncredited revisions of the screenplay. It is set in South Africa in 1976 and deals with the subject of apartheid. Brando was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

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Euzhan Palcy is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. Her films are known to explore themes of race, gender, and politics, with an emphasis on the perpetuated effects of colonialism. Palcy's first feature film Sugar Cane Alley (1983) received numerous awards including the César Award for Best First Feature Film. For directing A Dry White Season (1989), she became the first black female director to have a film produced by a major Hollywood studio, that being by MGM.

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Secret Admirer is a 1985 American teen romantic comedy film written and directed by David Greenwalt in his feature film directorial debut, and starring C. Thomas Howell, Lori Loughlin, Kelly Preston and Fred Ward. The original music score was composed by Jan Hammer. The film was produced at the height of the teen sex comedy cinema craze in the mid-1980s.

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Glynn Russell Turman is an American actor, director, writer, and producer. First coming to attention as a child actor in the original 1959 Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun, Turman is known for his roles as Lew Miles on the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place (1968–1969), high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson in the 1975 coming-of-age film Cooley High, math professor and retired Army colonel Bradford Taylor on the NBC sitcom A Different World (1988–1993), and Baltimore mayor Clarence Royce on the HBO drama series The Wire. He received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role on the HBO drama series In Treatment.

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Barbara Henry is a retired American teacher most notable for teaching Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School, located in New Orleans.

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The New Orleans Branch is the oldest continuously active branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People south of Washington D.C. It was formally chartered on July 15, 1915. However, prior to that time, there had been organizational efforts underway to affiliate with this new national civil rights organization which had first organized in New York City in 1909. In 1911, Emanuel M. Dunn, Paul Landix Sr. and James E. Gayle wrote to the NAACP national office to obtain more information about this "new abolition movement." Apparently, the locals did not wait for formal action from the national office, but proceeded to organize without official sanction.

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William Frantz Elementary School is an American elementary school located at 3811 North Galvez Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70117. Along with McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, it was involved in the New Orleans school desegregation crisis during 1960.

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References

  1. "Ruby Bridges". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved June 16, 2023.
  2. Helmore, Edward (2023-03-28). "Florida school pulls anti-racism film Ruby Bridges after parent complaint". The Guardian . ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  3. Gamble, Justin; Nicole Chavez (4 April 2023). "Review board allows Ruby Bridges movie to be shown at elementary school after parent complaint". CNN . Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  4. Abramovitch, Seth (14 March 2023). "'Ruby Bridges' Director Euzhan Palcy Reacts to Reversal of Florida School Ban: 'A Victory for Hope'". Ghe Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  5. Blanchet, Ben (15 April 2023). "'Ruby Bridges' Director Thanks Florida Teachers For Voting Down Potential Ban". Huffington Post. Retrieved 16 April 2023.

External links

Films directed by Euzhan Palcy

  • Sugar Cane Alley (1983)
  • A Dry White Season (1989)
  • Siméon (1992)
  • Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History (1994)
  • Ruby Bridges (1998)
  • The Killing Yard (2001)
  • Parcours de dissidents (2006)
  • The Brides of Bourbon Island (2007)
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