The Problem We All Live With

That moment when we come to the realization (perhaps while reminiscing upon our idyllic childhood in white America) that our security was founded upon the creation of a dystopian society, the likes of which we thought only existed in the pages of some novel that we could put back on the shelf in order to rest better at night.

In 1964, Look Magazine featured Norman Rockwell's painting, "The Problem We All Live With." It presented America as clearly as did his famous Thanksgiving Picture*.

With the Civil Rights Movement, some began to understand how Jim Crow laws had extended the dystopian society created by our predecessors. Watch this space in days to come for more about the problem we continue to live with.

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* "Freedom from Want" is the name of Rockwell's painting often referred to as the Thanksgiving Picture, or I'll be home for Christmas. It was one of four paintings he did during WWII as part of his Four Freedoms series, inspired by Franklin Rosevelt's 1941 State of the Union speech in which the president outlined the "Four Freedoms" that he envisioned for America, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

In 1964, Mr. Rockwell chose to memorialize in oil and canvas the racial conflict that gripped American life as schools were forced to integrate. He had left The Saturday Evening Post due to the limitations the magazine placed on the expression of his social and political interests. He found a more open environment at Look Magazine. "The Problem We All Live With" depicts Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school.

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Image: "The Problem We All Live With," 1964, Norman Rockwell Museum Collections.

Artist: Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

Medium: Oil on canvas, 36" x 58"

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