We honor teachers who make a difference.

The Barbara Henry Courage in Teaching Award was founded in the summer of 2021. It is named for Barbara Henry, who taught Ruby Bridges at William Frantz Elementary School in 1960. Her courage to do the right thing has made the world a better place. 

​This award honors teachers like Mrs. Henry, who have invoked change through acts of courage in everyday life. Winners are announced and prizes awarded in the Spring of each year. Anyone can nominate a teacher to receive the award. We consider educators from all over the world.

Ruby Bridges and Barbara Henry stand in front of Norman Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With". The iconic painting shows Bridges being escorted into her school by four U.S. marshals. Photo courtesy of Barbara Henry.

We believe possibilities for positive change are unlimited. If you know a teacher who took a risk to do the right thing, you can submit a submit a nomination or a story to be featured on the Courage in Teaching Blog. If you are an educator with a story about the value of courage, we'd love to hear that too. Read on to learn about racial segregation in the United States and the difference that Mrs. Henry made.

From the Courtroom to the Classroom

The beginning of the American Civil Rights Movement is difficult to pinpoint. Black Americans have been continuously fighting for equality since they were forcibly taken from their homelands and enslaved in the United States. Slavery was legally abolished in 1864, but things remained disproportionately difficult for Black people in the US. Much of that difficulty still exists today—but we have made progress. In 1954, just 89 years after the first Juneteenth celebration, the modern Civil Rights Movement was born with Brown v. Board of Education. Ruby Bridges was born that year too. 

​In that landmark case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. For the first time in American history, Black students could be enrolled in the same classes as their white peers. In 1957, nine Black high school students in Arkansas—known today as the Little Rock Nine—were the first to integrate into an all-white school. They needed Presidential military protection just to get to class safely. Activism continued in segregated institutions across the country. Jim Crow laws were still in effect. 

Three years later, Lucille and Abon Bridges of New Orleans decided to send their daughter, Ruby, to an all-white school. She was six years old. On her first day, Ruby was met with an onslaught of white protestors displaying images of violence and screaming hateful slurs. She, too, was given presidential military protection—but there was another problem. Every single teacher at William Frantz Elementary School refused to teach her. That's where Barbara Henry comes in.

Teaching Against the Odds

Mrs. Henry had recently married and moved from Boston to her husband's native New Orleans. She applied for a teaching job—the superintendent called and asked if it would make a difference whether the school was segregated. "What a strange question to ask," wrote Henry in The Boston Globe. "Why would it make any difference? I had been part of a desegregated world for years and years." Conditions were a little different in Louisiana—the mobs were so big that Mrs. Henry had to park several blocks away from the school.

​She walked through the raging crowd, up to the barricade, and gave the police and federal marshals her name. When they finally opened the school to her and Ruby, many white families withdrew their own children. They were met with furious hordes of white protestors every day, but they both kept coming to school. Ruby spent the whole day, every day, with Mrs. Henry in their classroom. She wasn't allowed to go to lunch or recess with the other students, and if she had to use the restroom, she was escorted by the marshals. Mrs. Henry created a safe haven for Ruby at school—and taught her every subject alone. Despite the masses against them, they had a good year.

But the work wasn't over when Ruby went home. Mrs. Henry spent her after-school hours advocating for Ruby—and in turn Black students everywhere—by negotiating with the principal until the first-grader was allowed to share space with her white peers. The Henrys moved back to Boston the following year, but things had definitely changed. When Ruby entered second grade, her school was actually desegregated. William Frantz was back at full enrollment. Students shared classes, lunch, and recess, regardless of the color of their skin.

By the mid 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing—thanks in no small part to unsung heroes like teachers who come to work and teach, no matter what barriers stand in the way. ​It is through acts of courage that we make progress toward an equitable and inhabitable world. 

#BlackLivesMatter

Learn more about Black History in the US at the Library of Congress website. ​​