The Problem We All Live With

painting by Rockwell

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July 19, 2026

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Norman Rockwell's painting, The Problem We All Live With, depicts Ruby Bridges on her first day of school at William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. At six years old, Bridges was one of the first African American students to integrate the all-white school system in the American South.12

The painting shows a young Ruby Bridges, escorted by federal marshals, walking to school amidst a hostile crowd. A racial slur is visible on the wall behind her. This iconic image was inspired by photographs of Bridges's courageous journey and became a powerful symbol of the civil rights movement. Bridges's bravery in the face of intense racism paved the way for desegregation in schools.21

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Ruby Bridges
inspired the Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With (1963), which depicts the young Bridges walking to school between two sets of marshals, a racial epithet marking the wall behind them. Her story was also recounted in Coles’s children’s book The Story of Ruby Bridges (1995), which has…
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inspired the Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With (1963), which depicts the young Bridges walking to school between two sets of marshals, a racial epithet marking the wall behind them. Her story was also recounted in Coles’s children’s book The Story of Ruby Bridges (1995), which has…
Read More