ABSTRACT
In 1964 American artist Norman Rockwell painted what would become an icon of the civil rights movement, a painting entitled, “The Problem We All Live With.” The painting is a depiction of Ruby Bridges, the 6-year-old African American girl who desegregated the New Orleans Parish Schools in 1960. In the painting, a brave little Black girl is seen striding between four federal marshals with her schoolbook and ruler in her hands and on the wall behind her are the heinous racial epithet and the remnants of a tomato that was tossed in her direction. In many ways this painting is emblematic of the experiences of racially minoritized 1 students over a long period of the nation’s history and such a rendering persists today.
