Booker High School

Next month, Sarasota will welcome Ruby Bridges, a living symbol of courage and progress in American history.

As Chloe Nelson reports, Bridges will speak at Booker High School on November eleventh, and tickets sold out almost immediately.

The interest reflects a deep respect for her story and her enduring impact.

In nineteen sixty, at just six years old, Ruby Bridges became the first Black child to integrate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, a moment that forever changed the nation.

This event has special meaning for Sarasota.

It was inspired by local resident Walter Gilbert after his granddaughter portrayed Bridges in a school program.

The event's venue, Booker High School, has its own rich legacy in Sarasota's integration history, adding significance for the community.

Proceeds will benefit Embracing Our Differences and the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition.

well, my name is Kennedy.

I'm a senior over at Booker High.

I do a lot of things.

I'm student body president there.

What about you, Avery?

My name is Avery.

I'm also a senior at Booker High School.

I'm on a different path than him.

That young lady goes to school with my daughter.

And so, like she said, over at Booker High School, where they go to school, that school is largely a Hispanic community.

And it's the same district that Bridget Ziegler is the school board chair over.

And so for me, I was at that meeting and it was powerful because watching those students, those students skip school that day to come to a school board meeting.

And I started questioning, what's going on here? Why is my representative constantly in the news? The person who represents my district, which is partially in a historically black district.

Why is it that I never see her around? Why is she pushing an agenda in which we have at my daughter's high school, which is Booker High School, majority population is Hispanic and Black.

Why is my representative now pushing agendas that seem to be pushing against Black and Hispanic students? What kind of books were they?

Well, this is Wide Awake America, and we are hearing Jeremy Glover, who is a finalist for the Sarasota School Board runoff.