SEARCY, Ark. (KTHV) -- There are thousands of stories all around us every day that we aren't aware of. Some big, some small, some dramatic, some sweet and some even change history.
On Thursday, you found an example of that on the campus of Harding University. Ruby Bridges was brought to Harding as a guest speaker because of a 57-year-old painting that featured Bridges as a child.
The painting was by Norman Rockwell, whose art was never controversial, until this one made the cover of Look Magazine. It featured 6-year-old Ruby Bridges in 1960, accompanied by U.S. Marshals, walking into a newly integrated all white elementary school in New Orleans. She was the first and only black child at William Frantz Elementary.
“I spent the whole year in an empty school and an empty classroom,” said Bridges.
As she reflects on that turbulent time, it's still through the eyes of a child.
“Like all the mob outside you know, to me it looked like Mardi Gras,” said Bridges. “For me it didn't matter what the kids looked like. I just wanted someone to play with.”
But, her only companion that whole year was her teacher Barbara Henry.
“I always say that the lesson I took away from her in that whole experience is that you can't look at a person and judge them,” said Bridges.
The painting of the child produced an adult activist, who now in 2017 disagrees with our country's annual February observance of Black History Month.
“Hey, I don't believe in black history month and everybody was like 'oh my goodness,' but I don't," Bridges explained. "I believe that it is our shared history and that it should be taught every day like every other history."
It's not unusual for Bridges to be at Harding on an otherwise normal day. According to her, she’s in a school on a daily basis. For 18 years, she worked for American Express where she learned just as much she would have in school.
“[I'm] very proud of it because it afforded me an opportunity to travel abroad and see the wider worlds,” said Bridges.
But, no trip could've been any more valuable than that simple walk to school. She helped the wider world to see.
“Each and every one of us should ask ourselves what have I done,” she said.
In 2014, a statue was unveiled at William Frantz Elementary to celebrate her role in integrating the school and changing the course of history.