Moving in

 This is an oil painting on canvas made by a New York illustrator, Norman Rockwell, in 1967. It was made to illustrate an article published in the magazine "Look" on May 16, 1967. It is entitled "Moving in". The theme of this painting is the period of desegregation in the United States.

  In the foreground, there are two groups of children facing each other, they seem to be the same age and belong to the same social category. The first group of children is composed of two African American children, a girl and a boy, probably brother and sister. Both are neatly dressed. In addition, we can see that the girl is holding a white cat and the boy a baseball glove. As for the second group, we can see two boys, a girl and a small black dog. They are dressed in casual clothes.

In addition, both boys are holding baseball gloves as is the black boy.

The groups are separated by the lines of the pavement, and look at each other curiously, especially the white children. In the background, a large white moving truck can be seen. Out of it comes a dark-skinned man carrying a huge black box.  To the left are three beautiful houses and in the lower left corner are a few objects (furniture, picture frames and a bedside lamp) sitting on the lawn of the property.

  The painting depicts a black American family moving into an upscale residential neighbourhood during desegregation that was previously reserved exclusively for white Americans.

This is what astonishes and amazes the white children because they had never seen anything like it here. Similarly, their positions create a contrast between blacks and whites. If we look closely, we can see that the white children are leaning towards the black children, unlike the animals, since we can see the opposite: the white cat is leaning towards the black dog.

 Norman Rockwell is a committed artist and only deals with serious subjects. In this painting, he denounces racism and segregation. However, at the same time, he celebrates desegregation in the hope that it will end the racism that the African American community has suffered for centuries.

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