MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This next conversation is about the intersection of two remarkable lives. The first is Robert Coles, child psychiatrist, Harvard professor, Pulitzer Prize-winner. The other is Ruby Bridges, civil rights activist and author. But back in 1960, she was a little girl, 6 years old, who became the first Black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Well, Robert Coles, who studied the emotional effects of desegregation, was there as federal marshals worked to escort her inside through a mob of white people.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERT COLES: Two hundred people waiting at 8:30 in the morning to tell her they were going to kill her. What would you expect? You'd expect that a child going through that would pretty soon start developing symptoms and be in trouble.
KELLY: From that moment, Coles was on a mission.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
COLES: I thought to myself, I would like to know that child. I'd like to know what's happening to her.
KELLY: Robert Coles spent the rest of that year talking with and writing about Ruby. He died on June 4 at the age of 97, so we have called Ruby Bridges to remember him and remember a relationship that changed both their lives. Ruby Bridges, welcome. It is so good to speak with you again.
RUBY BRIDGES: Oh, thank you so much, Mary Louise. It's my pleasure.
KELLY: What do you remember about the first time you met Robert Coles?
BRIDGES: It was just a little eerie, just listening to his voice just then. You know, being 6 years old, I had no idea that he was a psychiatrist.
KELLY: Yeah.
BRIDGES: And he would come over to visit.
KELLY: At your house?
BRIDGES: At my house, but we spent the majority of the time together, he and I. We would sit at the kitchen table, and I was always excited about seeing him. He would bring gifts, which were crayons and drawing paper. And that's pretty much how we communicated. We would sit at the kitchen table. He would ask me questions and ask me to draw things for him. And I saw him as a friend and was excited about his visit.
KELLY: I'm picturing y'all sitting at that kitchen table, drawing pictures back and forth. It sounds - he was clearly learning from you, and you were learning from him.
BRIDGES: I grew up in a family, African American family, where - pretty much in the '60s, you were seen but not heard. So I had no idea of what was happening around me at the time. It was very different from what I was accustomed to because I'd gone to kindergarten at an all-Black school where everyone looked like me and had a great time. And now I found myself in a new school that emptied out the day that I arrived. So Dr. Coles would come and visit, and he did that for three years. So I saw him up until I was about 9 years old.
KELLY: Yeah. He went on to write a series of books, "Children Of Crisis," won the Pulitzer Prize for it. The first book in the series was your story, Ruby Bridges. What was it like to grow up and read his account of your experiences?
BRIDGES: It helped me to understand because the truth of the matter is that after that year was over, pretty much school was normal. The kids that had left the year before, some of them returned. There were Black and white kids together. So that second year was harder for me than the first. I felt like I was - you know, maybe I dreamed everything, that it didn't happen at all. So I believe having Dr. Coles there to ask me questions and discuss certain issues really helped me, even though I didn't realize it at the time.
KELLY: Oh, it's so interesting. Yeah, it was almost as though you were learning new things about your own story through reading about his account years later.
BRIDGES: Yeah.
KELLY: So I last interviewed you about your children's book, "I Am Ruby Bridges." And I know you make a habit of visiting schools and talking with kids and helping them understand your history, which, of course, is also our history as a nation. As I was thinking about this conversation, I was thinking how powerful that is, flipping the roles. Today, you are the famous teacher sharing what you have learned with a new generation that's come up behind you.
BRIDGES: I have to say it's been an amazing journey, and I often feel like I have one foot in the past, one in the present. And I'm still trying to figure things out. And here we are today, seems as if we're reliving history all over again, fighting for the same rights that we did back in the '60s. It's very confusing for me, so I can only imagine what it must be like for kids today.
KELLY: The 6-year-olds out there now.
BRIDGES: Trying to navigate through all of the confusion in this country and what's happening - I often wonder, you know, is there a Dr. Coles for them? But you're right. So much of what he did shaped my life, and that wasn't something that I realized until later on in life.
KELLY: When was the last time you saw Robert Coles?
BRIDGES: I had an opportunity to visit with him about a month ago. His son and I, who are very close, reached out to me and suggested that I come and visit with him. He was actually in hospice, and so I did. And he was sort of in and out because he was suffering from Alzheimer's. But there was a moment when his son mentioned my name, Ruby Bridges, and I said to him, you remember Ruby Bridges, don't you - in New Orleans? And this huge smile came over his face, and he said, New Orleans. He said, "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Camellia Grill.
(LAUGHTER)
BRIDGES: Camellia Grill was one of his favorite places to go, so I knew that he connected at that moment, and then he started to talk about his time there.
KELLY: Yeah.
BRIDGES: He went back to 1960, and he said, my wife, Jane, said that I should help that little girl. I should talk to those kids. And he said, and I did. And I said, yes, you did. And I said, you did a really good thing, and you've had an amazing life. And he said, you think so? And I said, you did a really good thing. He said, yes, it was a good thing. So he went right back to 1960. He remembered it.
KELLY: Ah, that gives me goose bumps. It's beautiful.
BRIDGES: Yes. It was amazing. And he kind of leaned back, and he said, thank you. And he lifted my hand and kissed my hand - kissed the back of my hand.
KELLY: Ruby Bridges is an activist, author and founder of the Ruby Bridges Foundation. She's remembering her friend, Dr. Robert Coles, who died last week. Ruby Bridges, thank you.
BRIDGES: Thank you so much, Mary Louise. It's been great to be able to walk back in time and think about what he meant to me and evidently what I meant to him. I appreciate the opportunity.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
