James Baldwin 1924-1987
Influential civil rights leader who broke homosexual and interracial relationship taboos in his writing. Hear his inimitable voice debating William F. Buckley in Cambridge 1965.
Ruby Bridges
etched soda-lime glass bead, “ x “ x “.
20% of the sale goes to #ThurgoodMarshallCollegeFund.
In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (the 1896 “separate but equal” doctrine that ushered in Jim Crow legislation). NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall won the case and later became the first black Supreme Court Justice. The South resisted the ruling and six years after segregation was banned, pressure from the feds forced New Orleans to integrate. New Orleans initiated an entrance exam, but Ruby passed and at six years old was the first black student to integrate William Frantz Elementary. Ruby was escorted through an angry mob by U.S. Marshals. Parents removed their children from school. The next week, a minister broke the boycott by bringing his child to school and others followed. But Ruby spent the year as the sole student of the only teacher, from Boston, willing to teach a black child. “Racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it.”-Ruby Bridges
Rambur’s Forktail Ischnura ramburii
23 x 8.25 x 3.25 in
These petite damselflies work diligently across the western hemisphere predating on flies and mosquitos.
