[Picture: “The Problem We All Live With”, Norman Rockwell, 1964]
Ruby Bridges is six. It’s 14th November 1960 and it’s her first day at the William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans. She is excited but understandably nervous. But why are these men needing to escort her to school? What is all this noise and disturbance? Why are people shouting? And why is she the only child in her classroom when she gets there?
This powerful but deeply disturbing painting by Norman Rockwell tells of a pivotal day in the struggle for civil rights in the USA. A Federal Court had ordered a New Orleans school to integrate all its students, and Ruby was the first African American child to attend the school. There was a public outcry and white parents withdrew their children from the school in protest.
I’ve shared a Norman Rockwell painting before, in a reflection for Life Light. Rockwell was a hugely popular artist and illustrator in the USA and prolific up to his death in 1978. He depicted, often quite sentimental, images of American life. Steven Spielberg has said of him: “Rockwell painted the American dream better than anyone.” During his lifetime many critics dismissed Rockwell’s work as saccharine. I don’t agree; there is a deep humanity, insight - and sometimes humour - which permeates his best works. He also chose his moments to shine a harsh light on the worst of humankind, as he does in this painting.
The image deliberately focusses on Ruby’s dignity, her head held high. We don’t see the faces of the Marshalls protecting her; we view the picture as another child may have done, at Ruby’s eye level. We don’t see the angry mob, but we do see the red tomato juice that has been thrown. And, yes, that is the “N” word scrawled onto the wall behind her.
The fact that Rockwell was so popular with conservative Americans made “The Problem We All Live With” all the more powerful when it was first published, hitting the very type of people who had withdrawn their children from the school that day. The paintings impact came as much from who the artist was as the image it depicted. It took courage to create. Appearing as it did in “Look” magazine in 1964 at the height of the Civil Rights movement, it is now widely seen as a potent symbol of that struggle.
When Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the most important, he replied:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
(Mark 12: 30-1)
We probably think we understand the command to love our neighbour and know what we would have done had we lived in New Orleans in 1960. We like to think that we would have had the courage and conviction not to withdraw our children from that school. But Norman Rockwell’s decision to paint this image challenges us further. Even when a situation does not directly impact upon us personally, loving our neighbour means having the courage to stand up and be counted, to speak out against injustices wherever we see them, including to those closest to us.
Martin Luther King Jnr memorably said: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Norman Rockwell chose not to remain silent in the face of evil. Neither should we.
Philip Clarke
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