Conversation with Ruby Bridges set for April 18

On Nov. 14, 1960, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges faced hostile crowds as the first black child to attend an all-white New Orleans school. Since then, Bridges has become iconized by Norman Rockwell in a painting of the girl in a white dress escorted by federal marshals, and by Robert Coles in a picture book for children featuring Bridges. The person, not the icon, will speak to the Harvard community on Thursday, April 18, at 6 p.m. in the Memorial Church. The conversation with Bridges is co-sponsored by the Divinity School, the Graduate School of Education, the Harvard Children’s Initiative, Adams House, the Division of General Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, and the Memorial Church. An informal reception and book signing will follow the event.