A poem inspired by Norman Rockwell’s painting entitled “The Problem We all Live With”. It is believed that John Steinbeck’s description inspired Rockwell to do this painting:

Four big marshals got out of each car and from somewhere in the automobiles they extracted the littlest Negro girl you ever saw, dressed in starchy white, with new white shoes….Her face and little legs were very black against the white….The little girl did not look back at the howling crowd but from the side the whites of her eyes showed like those of a frightened fawn. The men turned her around like a doll and then the strange procession moved up the broad walk toward the school, and the child was even a mite because the men were so big.

For the story behind the painting, check out:
www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/007693.html.