Answer: Ruby Bridges advanced the cause of civil rights in November 1960 when she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South. When she was four years old, her family moved to New Orleans. Two years later a test was given to the city’s African American schoolchildren to determine which students could enter all-white schools. Ruby passed the test and was selected for enrollment at the city’s Elementary School. When school began, Ruby and her mother were escorted by four federal marshals to the school every day that year. She would walk past crowds screaming vicious slurs at her.