Artwork Details
- Title
- Ruby Nell Bridges
- Artist
- Date
- 2012
- Location
- Dimensions
- 45 1⁄2 × 46 7⁄8 in. (115.6 × 119.1 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Fleur S. Bresler
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- cotton, silk, polyester fabric, and cotton batt
- Classifications
- Subjects
- African American
- Occupation — education — student
- Occupation — other — reformer
- Portrait female — Bridges, Ruby — child
- Object Number
- 2023.40.13
Artwork Description
Marion Coleman
born 1946, Wichita Falls, TX
died 2019, Oakland, CA
Ruby Nell Bridges
2012
cotton, silk, polyester fabric, and cotton batting
In 1960, Ruby Bridges became the first Black child to attend the formerly all-white William Franz Elementary in Louisiana. While the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education made school segregation illegal, some school districts interpreted the law in a way that delayed the process of integration.
Marion Coleman incorporated a photograph of her cousin to connect her own experiences with school segregation to the collective experience of watching Bridges integrate an elementary school. Segments from the Brown v. Board of Education ruling are ironed onto the negative space of the quilt. Community reactions to Bridges are printed on fabric and stitched on the lower half of the quilt. Names of people who helped Bridges as well as desegregation dates are machine-stitched in red, creating a visual contrast between words that uphold segregation and words that dismantle the racist institution.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.13
We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts of Black Women Artists, 2025