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Thank You, Ruby Bridges
by Alexis G.

Dear Ruby Bridges,

I'm a 10-year-old Hispanic girl who feels privileged to attend Lawton Chiles Elementary School in Tampa, Florida, where there are many other children and adults from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

I want to thank you for choosing not to stay home on that dreary November day in 1960. Your actions on that day allowed millions of children to attend schools with their closest friends regardless of their heritage or other differences. If it were not for your brave actions so many years ago, my friends and I would not be able to attend school together. I look up to you as a role model because you fight for people to be tolerant, respectful, and appreciate one another's differences.

Diversity is something that should be embraced by all; I'm glad that when you visit schools across the country you talk about how everyone is different and that school is a place that can bring people together. I know that this is true.

I have many friends that are from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It doesn't matter to us where a friend was born or whether she is white or black; we just want to do things together and have lots of fun.

Children aren't born knowing what racism is, they are taught by the adults who influence them. Children learn from their parents and racism will never end until adults learn first! Diversity needs to be promoted in the workplace and supported by corporate America so adults can learn that diversity is really a good thing and something that should not be feared by anyone.

Alexis G., 4th grade
Florida

"Thank You, Ruby Bridges"

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