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When six-year-old Ruby Bridges, accompanied by her mother and federal marshals, walked into William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans on the morning of November 14, 1960, she walked into the history books. 

Ruby knew she was going to a new school, but she was too young to understand the racial barrier her presence at that school was breaking down. To ensure she came through the experience emotionally whole, psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton, known for his pioneering work on the effects of war and political violence, was asked to spend time with Ruby days before and after that day that changed the nation.

The evening after her first day he talked with her about the experience. At one point he told her he noticed she had stopped before she reached the front doors of the school, bowed her head, and then said something to the crowd. He asked her what she said to them.

“I didn’t say anything to them,” Ruby answered. 

“You didn’t,” he responded, “then who were you talking to?”    

“I was talking to God,” she answered. 

“To God?” he responded. “Well, can you tell me what you said to God?” 

Ruby answered almost in a whisper, “I asked him to forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing.”

I remember tears filling my eyes when I first heard Lifton tell that story, and Jesus’ words, “And a child shall lead them” filling my mind. 

“I asked him to forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing.” The words of innocence exposing the darkness of racial slurs.

On one level I suspect Ruby was actually right about those white parents. They likely had not given a thought to just how awful their actions were.  

On another level, though, I am sure they knew exactly what they were doing. They were fighting for the right of the white majority to keep black people in their place. They knew the minute the doors to integration were open they would never be able to shut them again. So those angry whites were not even close to being as innocent as the six-year-old angel walking between them.

More than that, she was better than I would have been in that moment. I’m sure asking God to forgive them for any reason would not have been my response that November morning. Instead, if I prayed at all it would have been for God to rain fire and brimstone down on their heads.

Especially in light of what we are witnessing today that shows any progress toward racial justice our country has made is not nearly enough.  

Sixty-seven-year old Ruby Bridges is facing yet another “angry white mob” determined to rob her of another one of her constitutional rights, only this time members of the “mob” are Republican politicians in state legislatures across the country passing laws to make it harder for Ruby and her own three grown children to vote.

Moreover, these politicians and their supporters know exactly what they are doing or they wouldn’t lie about the reasons why. The 2020 election wasn’t rigged, wasn’t corrupted by fraud, and Donald Trump wasn’t robbed of his rightful victory.

When you’re doing what is right you don’t lie to justify it.  

Nor do you act petty. One new law is so punitive that it makes it illegal to give water or food to people standing in long voter lines for hours, especially since these same legislators made those lines long by reducing the number of early voting days and precinct hours on election day.

Making matters worse is that racist voter suppression laws have a long history in our country.

Freed male black slaves were given the right to vote when the Confederacy was defeated, augmented by the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the 14^th Amendment in 1868, and the 15^th Amendment in 1870. 

When President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from all southern states in 1877 that were protecting the freedom and rights of newly freed slaves, southern legislatures began passing laws that ushered in the Jim Crow era of racial segregation.

They were called “Black Code” laws written and enacted by white politicians and aimed directly at the rights of black citizens

Sound familiar? It should.

These new laws have the same goal, to circumvent the Civil Rights Law of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They became possible by a 2013 Supreme Court decision that had the same effect as Hayes removing federal troops in 1877. The court struck down the pre-clearance requirement Section of the Voting Rights Act that meant states with a history of voter suppression had to receive pre-approval from the Justice Department before changing their voting laws.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote that times had changed and pre-clearance was no longer needed. That would have been laughable had it not been so misguided. Within days of the ruling Republican states like Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming started passing “Black Code” laws again. 

Nothing is more fundamental to maintaining democracy than the right to vote in free and fair elections. The Senate had a chance to ensure this would remain the case in two bills the House had already passed, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act. Instead, Senate Republicans chose to side with voter suppression by using the filibuster rule to block a vote on either of them.

That, I fear, was a momentous decision that historians will mark as the beginning of the end of American democracy

Given what I have read about the person Ruby Bridges is today, it is possible she has already asked God to forgive Republicans for what they are doing. At the same time, though, as a veteran civil rights advocate, she has learned through experience that modern sponsors of “Black Code” laws are way beyond not knowing what they are doing.

What is more, they are living reminders that it actually is true that those who refuse to learn from history by denying it exists will inevitably repeat it.