September 8

Ruby Bridges and Hilda Bernstein

Author

David Barnhart
September 08, 2025

Today is the birthday, in 1954, of Ruby Bridges, who broke the race barrier as a child when she attended an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. Her whole family sacrificed for this prophetic witness—economically, psychologically, and relationally. She has continued to witness through her writing and speaking. 

Today marks the death, in 2006, of Hilda Bernstein, an author and activist against apartheid in South Africa. She and her husband organized and protested against the white government’s oppressive policies, and were exiled to London. 

Reflection: 

Ruby Bridges wrote: 

“I have been saying for many years how I believe racism is a grown-up disease, and we "adults" must stop using you, our kids, to spread it. None of you is born into the world racist. It is we adults who pass racism on. In so many ways, we have failed you by not setting the example you deserve.”

Hilda Bernstein wrote, in words that seem timely for our own country in this era of fascism:

“We became even more separated from white Johannesburg, except for personal friends, the majority of whom shared our attitudes and in many cases our politics. The years made me increasingly intolerant of those well-meaning whites who believed in gradualism and wanted to improve conditions among what they termed ‘the less-privileged section.’ I came to believe more and more in the essential oneness of humanity, in the need to express this through one’s life. All our activities, what creative powers and abilities we possessed were directed towards this involvement with human beings as humans, not because they were black and oppressed, but because they were human.”

Prayer: God of healing, help us see racism and fascism as the diseases they are, and give us the power to vaccinate human beings against them. Where the disease has already festered, bring a recovery of sanity and compassion. Amen.