This Is Your Time

In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked into William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, one of the first Black children to attend a previously all-white public school in the city. Federal marshals escorted her to class. This Is Your Time is her own account of that experience, written as a letter addressed directly to the reader.

Ruby looks back at what it meant to be a child at the center of the struggle over school integration, and she does so with candor and warmth. Her memories of those days lead into a larger message for younger generations: that the work of pursuing liberty and justice for everyone is not finished, and that those who come next have a part in it. As she puts it, what can inspire tomorrow often lies in our past.

The book is designed as a gift volume and pairs archival photographs from the 1960s with images from more recent years. Its cover reproduces Norman Rockwell's 1964 painting The Problem We All Live With, which shows Ruby's walk to school. Though it draws on a childhood story, it speaks to readers of every age.