Co-organizer and school speech pathologist Jessica Jakobe said they were walking with kids from around the country that morning.

Co-organizer and teacher Temnit Muldowney said she learned about the annual Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day online and thought it’d be a great way for her and Jakobe to continue the work they do with the multiculturalism night in February.

“You can be changemakers,” Muldowney told the crowd of youngsters. “You have the ability, even at a young age.”

She told them to spread kindness and inclusivity.

Temnit Muldowney, TJ Pollock and Grant Holman carry a banner as they walk to Petrova Elementary School on Friday as part of the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Earlier this month, the two of them went into every classroom and told students about the importance of the day.

Jakobe said it opened the students’ eyes to a piece of American history and they found unique ways to teach such a heavy topic.

Students seemed to retain the gravity of Bridges’ story.

“She was the first Black girl to go to a white school,” Talia Muldowney, 8, said.

“She was nervous,” Madi Ploof, 8, said. “She was also brave.”

Harper Braun, Julia Volyanik and Luna Ryan walk to Petrova Elementary School on Friday carrying signs they made saying “Be brave” and “Do not judge anyone for their skin color.” (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“Be brave like Ruby,” Talia said.

Michelle Hadlock, 9, said Bridges showed kindness to everyone, but “everyone was mad at her.”

“She was pretty brave,” Grant Holman, 10, said.

“There was only one teacher who would teach her,” TJ Pollock, 9, said.

“There shouldn’t be such a thing as segregation because there’s Black kids and white kids and it doesn’t matter what school they go to, what bathroom they go to or which water fountain they go to,” Pollock said.

Around 90 Petrova Elementary School students walked to school carrying signs on Friday. They were part of the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, which commemorates the day in 1960 when Bridges broke the racial barrier in then-segregated public schools. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“We’re all the same,” Holman said.

In 1960, a 6-year-old Bridges volunteered to be one of the first Black students to integrate into an up-until-then whites-only school — William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.

The Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, which made racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, was made just months before her birth in 1954. It said schools should desegregate “with all deliberate speed.”

This was not easy to do, as white district members pushed back on the effort with protests, harassment and violence to the point where U.S. Marshals were called in to escort Bridges to school.

Day after day, as she walked to school, locals shouted slurs at her, threatened her with poisoning and showed her a Black doll in a coffin.

Althea Terreberry, June Mashburn and Layla Greis walk to Petrova Elementary School on Friday carrying a sign they made saying “Everyone belongs here.” They were part of the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, which commemorates the day in 1960 when Bridges broke the racial barrier in then-segregated public schools. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Getting to school was only part of the battle, though.

Jakobe said in the first year, Bridges was in a classroom by herself because only one teacher — Barbara Henry — agreed to teach her. At first, white parents pulled their children out of the district. It was still, essentially segregated.

The fight to desegregate schools cost Bridges’ family jobs, land and the ability to shop at the local grocery store.

Bridges has written extensively about her experience and helped found the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which supports the walk, in 1999.

Today, she still lives in New Orleans and is 71 years old.

Keira Towle and Harper Stevens walk to Petrova Elementary School on Friday carrying a sign saying “Be yourself.” (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

School board Member Joe Henderson said it was incredible to watch the kids be engaged on Friday and was a reminder that “school is for everyone.”

Bridge’s walk in 1960 is recent history, and he felt it’s an important part of understanding the history of public schools.

Henderson feels there’s an effort to resegregate schools in America and said they were sending a message that they will not let this happen.

According to research from Axios, at least 84 U.S. school districts are still under court orders or federal monitoring agreements to desegregate.

President Donald Trump’s administration has indicated plans to end these desegregation policies.

Some school officials say they’ve met their integration goals, decades after the orders started. Others say there are still imbalances in educational opportunities, and “resegregation” as white students in these predominately Black, historically discriminatory and often poor districts attend private or charter schools instead of public schools.

School board Member Nancy Bernstein said schools are still segregated, based on things like economics or where people live, instead of discriminatory laws.

Jakobe and Muldowney said they were proud of the students’ work on the posters and buttons they made last week.

They both plan to hold the walk annually and expand it next year.

“The walk made me feel happy,” Hadlock said after arriving at school, “that I could show kindness to everyone in the world.”

Around 90 Petrova Elementary School students walked to school carrying signs on Friday. They were part of the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, which commemorates the day in 1960 when Bridges broke the racial barrier in then-segregated public schools. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)