Career
Mistress Henry was accustomed to a diverse world experience from her travel and teaching experiences in Europe, not to mention her own education at Girls Latin School in Boston, a microcosm of the City of Boston where “we learned… to appreciate and enjoy our important commonalities, amid our external differences of class, community, or color.” Before moving to New Orleans she had taught in overseas military dependents" schools, which were integrated. When Henry asked if the job was in a school that would be integrated, the superintendent replied, “Would that make any difference to you?” She said northern In New Orleans, in 1960, the young teacher Henry frequently passed through a mob of protesters shouting racist insults and threats(like"2 4 6 8, we will never integrate") That was the reality in 1960 for both Ruby and Barbara.
Ruby was six years old, and the first black student to help integrate the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.
Barbara, her white teacher, was a newcomer to the city and its schools."
On the first day of the school year in 1960, Henry"s and Bridges" relentless refusal to be intimidated caused them to become renowned figures in the American civil rights struggle. When Ruby Bridges initially met her instructor she must have felt apprehensive.
"I had never seen a white teacher before," she said, "but Mistress Henry was the nicest teacher I ever had.
She tried very hard to keep my mind off what was going on outside.
But I couldn"t forget that there were no other kids."
The court-ordered first day of integrated schools in New Orleans, November 14, 1960, was commemorated by Norman Rockwell in the painting The Problem We All Live With.