Ruby Bridges, a civil rights icon known for walking among the first group of students to desegregate New Orleans public schools in 1960, on Thursday told an auditorium full of Kansas students, “You cannot believe that you can only trust people who look like you.

During the height of the Civil Rights Movement and living in a post-Brown v. Board of Education world, Bridges was among more than 100 students to volunteer to be the first Black children to integrate white schools. Though when the day came, Ruby would become known for walking her path alone.