1954-present Birthplace: Tylertown, Mississippi First African American student to desegregate an all-white school at 6 years old Civil Rights Activist Author Recipient United States Presidential Citizens Medal 2001 Ruby’s birth year coincided with the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, which ended racial segregation in public schools. Southern states continued to resist integration and in 1959 Ruby attended a segregated N