Photo from the 1960s shows segregationists harassing Ruby Bridges with a doll in a coffin?

Claim:

An authentic photo shows segregationists from the 1960s carrying a coffin containing a baby doll to intimidate 6-year-old Ruby Bridges.

Judgement:

What is true

Bridges has said in interviews as an adult that as a 6-year-old she was harassed while walking to school by a woman carrying a “black doll in the box.” But…

What is untrue?

Although the photo in question was taken in the same city and around the same time as Bridges’ much-publicized walks to school, the image shows segregationists outside the Louisiana state capitol building for a protest not specifically aimed at Bridges, but at school integration in general.

What is indefinite

It’s possible that the box and doll in the photo are the same items Bridges referred to in the NPR interview, but there is no conclusive evidence that this is the case.

In the 1960s, Ruby Bridges was one of the few black students in New Orleans to integrate the then all-white schools. As a 6-year-old, she walked to school with U.S. Marshals guard her. Segregationists had marked out her route. Photographers documented the scene, and some of those images are still popular online today.

There is, however, at least one photo from that era circulating with a somewhat misleading caption. The photo — which an X account shared in June 2024 as part of a series that described it as “some of the most haunting photographs ever taken” — allegedly depict segregationists harassing Bridges with a doll in a coffin. That X-post collected more than 8.2 million viewswhich was by far the most of all the images in the thread.

From users on Facebook Unpleasant Instagram Unpleasant Redditpeople on social media shared the photo yearsand also claims that segregationists are seen harassing Bridges with a doll in a coffin.

There was some truth to the claim. The photo was indeed taken in Louisiana in 1960 and showed people protesting the integration of racially segregated schools.

The photo, however, was taken at the Louisiana State Capitol — not during one of Bridges’ walks to William Frantz Elementary School. The two locations are about 83 miles apart. The crowd had gathered at the state Capitol to protest school desegregation in general.

That said, Bridges was one of four black students in New Orleans who integrated into previously all-white schools, according to The Associated Press. One could argue that a protest at the Capitol against statewide desegregation was, at least indirectly, aimed at her and those other students.

That said, in interviews as an adult, Bridges recalled that segregationists would display a doll in a coffin on her walks to elementary school. Here is part of a 2010 conversation between Bridges and NPRs Michel Martin (emphasis ours):

MARTIN: Were you ever afraid?

Ms. BRIDGES: There were times when I was afraid because every now and then the crowd would bring a box, and this box was actually a baby coffin. And they would put this black doll in the coffin. And so I had to cross the picket line where they were walking up and down the sidewalk in front of the school, and I had to go past the box. And I used to have nightmares about the box. So those are the days that I remember clearly being really, really scared.

She once told The Guardian that she had nightmares about the doll and the coffin. “I dreamed that the coffin flew through my bedroom at night.”

However, we were unable to find any verifiable photographic evidence that segregationists carried the casket and doll on Bridges’ route.

Via a reverse image searchwe found the image in question on Alamya stock photo company, with the caption:

Parents of children attending two recently integrated schools in New Orleans stage a mock funeral procession on the steps of the Capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Nov. 23, 1960, for U.S. District Judge J. Skelly Wright, whose order integrated the schools. Three busloads of protesters, carrying small black flags, had come from New Orleans to show their support for a special session of the Legislature. (AP Photo)

We found the photo in the archives of The Associated Press. (The caption was the same; it did not name a specific photographer, but simply said “AP” in general.)

Bridges’ 1999 book “Through My Eyes” contains another photo of segregationists, the casket and the doll. Many details about that photo, including who took it and where, remain unknown. It may have been taken near Bridges’ school, but there is no conclusive evidence to confirm that.

In that photo, someone held a sign that read, “Thank God for State Law.” In 2013, a 3D reconstruction of the image was created for William Frantz Elementary School, The Associated Press reported. Below is a photographer of the exhibit, featuring Bridges and one of the former US Marshals who protected her.

(AP/Michael Conroy)

In short, although the photo in question was taken in the same city and around the same time as Bridges’ much-publicized walks to school, it shows segregationists outside the Louisiana Capitol building for a protest not specifically aimed at Bridges, but at school integration in general. For that reason, we’ve labeled this claim “Mixture.”

Sources