Celebrating Gail Etienne, who desegregated a New Orleans school the day Ruby Bridges made history.

"I was only going to school."

This marvelous article from The Guardian celebrates another woman who, as a six-year-old “was only going to school.” When she first saw the crowds gathered to rain insults and hate speech at her (this is a kid, no less), she thought it was Mardi Gras.

“I’ll never forget it,” Etienne said. “I saw this one lady was pregnant and had a garbage can top in her hand. I’m wondering, at six years old, what could I have done at six years old to these people to make them act the way they were acting? I really thought that if they could get to me, they’d want to kill me. I didn’t know why. What had I done? I was just going to school.”

Gail Etienne made a life career at the school whose gates she quietly stormed as a child. Read it all:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/16/new-orleans-school-desegregation-gail-etienne