Great Lives Series: Norman Rockwell

Twentieth-century illustrator Norman Rockwell reflected in his work much of what was good in America. He is known for his sweet depictions of small-town life—soda fountains, family scenes, Boy Scouts, town meetings, doctors’ offices, and boys with dogs—but one of his most touching images was a painful one from the Civil Rights Era: “The Problem We All Live With.”

This illustration of five-year-old Ruby Nell Bridges bravely integrating an all-white school system brought forward the problem of racism to the middle-American audience of the Saturday Evening Post.