Continuing a rich tradition at UChicago, this year’s MLK Commemoration Celebration features a conversation with Ruby Bridges.

Bridges is a civil rights icon, activist, and author; 2025 marks 65 years since she, at the age of six, became the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school alone in Louisiana. Her walk to the front door of the school was immortalized in Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With and her story changed the course of American history.