Chapter Chronology

Quiz for Visualizing History: “School Desegregation”

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question

1. What aspect of the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s does Norman Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With” illustrate?

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B.
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Correct. The answer is a. Rockwell’s painting depicts the hostility surrounding desegregation of New Orleans schools in 1960, six years after the Supreme Court decided in Brown v. Board of Education that schools could not be segregated. The girl in the painting, first-grader Ruby Bridges, was the only black student sent to an all-white school.
Incorrect. The answer is a. Rockwell’s painting depicts the hostility surrounding desegregation of New Orleans schools in 1960, six years after the Supreme Court decided in Brown v. Board of Education that schools could not be segregated. The girl in the painting, first-grader Ruby Bridges, was the only black student sent to an all-white school.

Question

2. Why purpose did the four men marked “Deputy United States Marshal” serve in the 1960 scene that Norman Rockwell captured in his painting?

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B.
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Correct. The answer is b. In the 1960 scene Rockwell captured in this painting, the four federal marshals were escorting the student, Ruby Bridges, to school. Bridges needed this federal escort because, as the painting suggests, white crowds were hostile to Bridges, throwing tomatoes and yelling at her. The marshals in the painting demonstrate both the federal government’s commitment to school desegregation by the 1960s, and the lengths that were required to integrate schools in the South.
Incorrect. The answer is b. In the 1960 scene Rockwell captured in this painting, the four federal marshals were escorting the student, Ruby Bridges, to school. Bridges needed this federal escort because, as the painting suggests, white crowds were hostile to Bridges, throwing tomatoes and yelling at her. The marshals in the painting demonstrate both the federal government’s commitment to school desegregation by the 1960s, and the lengths that were required to integrate schools in the South.

Question

3. Why might Norman Rockwell have made the girl, Ruby Bridges, the central focus of his painting?

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Correct. The answer is d. By placing Ruby Bridges as the focus of his painting— and by depicting Bridges in white clothing that suggests innocence and purity—Rockwell was likely trying to frame the issue of school segregation sympathetically. Bridges appears as an innocent but determined young girl unconcerned with the politics of segregation; all she wants to do is go to school.
Incorrect. The answer is d. By placing Ruby Bridges as the focus of his painting— and by depicting Bridges in white clothing that suggests innocence and purity—Rockwell was likely trying to frame the issue of school segregation sympathetically. Bridges appears as an innocent but determined young girl unconcerned with the politics of segregation; all she wants to do is go to school.

Question

4. In the title of Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With,” what is the problem to which he refers?

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B.
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Correct. The answer is b. Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With” comments on the issue of school segregation by casting a sympathetic light on the struggles of black children who simply want to attend school. The problem the title alludes to is the problem of continued animosity and hostility between black and white Americans, and suggests that this is not just a southern problem, nor a black problem, but an American problem.
Incorrect. The answer is b. Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With” comments on the issue of school segregation by casting a sympathetic light on the struggles of black children who simply want to attend school. The problem the title alludes to is the problem of continued animosity and hostility between black and white Americans, and suggests that this is not just a southern problem, nor a black problem, but an American problem.

Question

5. How did the painting “The Problem We All Live With” mark a departure for Norman Rockwell from his earlier paintings?

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B.
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Correct. The answer is c. Norman Rockwell had been a famous and well-regarded painter for decades before he painted “The Problem We All Live With” in 1964, painting hundreds of sentimental and patriotic paintings for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. However, in the early 1960s, Rockwell began to paint scenes that commented on issues like poverty and civil rights, which ultimately contributed to his departure from the Post.
Incorrect. The answer is c. Norman Rockwell had been a famous and well-regarded painter for decades before he painted “The Problem We All Live With” in 1964, painting hundreds of sentimental and patriotic paintings for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. However, in the early 1960s, Rockwell began to paint scenes that commented on issues like poverty and civil rights, which ultimately contributed to his departure from the Post.