January 14, 2024—Today is the anniversary of one of Norman Rockwell’s most powerful paintings of the Civil Rights era. The Problem We All Live With appeared on the cover of Look magazine on this day 60 years ago—January 14, 1964.

Currently on display at Norman Rockwell Museum, The Problem We All Live With was created to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruling stating that separate was not equal in America’s public schools.

Rockwell’s painting highlights the resolve of African American families in their fight for racial equality. It follows closely the experience of six-year-old Ruby Bridges, who was escorted daily to the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans by U.S. Marshals for a full year, beginning on November 14, 1960. Also in New Orleans on that same day, young Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost, known as the McDonogh Three, arrived at McDonogh 19 Elementary School, a previously all-white school, escorted by U.S. Marshals as protection from the violent protests surrounding them.

Rockwell’s painting evokes their historic journey and engages our compassion by making a vulnerable but courageous child central to the composition. Importantly, the painting places us at the child’s height to help us see the world from her perspective. The image symbolically acknowledges the bravery and hopefulness of the children and families who were among the first to desegregate the nation’s public schools during the turbulent 1960s. The artist’s model for the painting was young Lynda Gunn, a resident of Stockbridge, Mass., where Rockwell lived and worked from 1953 until his death in 1978.

The Problem We All Live With is part of Norman Rockwell Museum’s Permanent Collection. It was the first painting the Museum purchased, in 1975, and is one of several socially conscious paintings from the 1960s in which Rockwell addressed the problems of racism and racial inequality in America.

Rockwell turned to political and social themes after resigning his 47-year tenure with The Saturday Evening Post in 1963. As an “elder-statesman” artist, he painted commissions for Look magazine in a pared down, reportorial style. The direct social commentary in Rockwell’s work for the magazine drew both praise and criticism.

Sixty years after its initial publication, The Problem We All Live With remains symbolic of the national struggle toward racial equality. The original oil-on-canvas was loaned to the White House in 2011 to honor the fiftieth anniversary of Ruby Bridges’ historic journey.

Learn more at the links below:

https://www.nrm.org/2011/05/norman-rockwells-the-problem-we-all-live-with-to-be-exhibited-at-the-white-house/

https://www.nrm.org/2010/10/norman-rockwells-the-problem-we-all-live-with-continues-to-resonate-as-important-symbol-for-civil-rights/

https://rubybridgesasingh.weebly.com/ruby-bridges-foundation.html