Jeffrey Brown:
Soon after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered World War II, her father was arrested and the rest of the family — Ruth herself was aged 16 — sent to an internment or incarceration camps, first in California, then in Arkansas.
After 16 months, she was allowed to attend college in Milwaukee and hoped to become an art teacher, but racial discrimination prevented that. Instead, another life-changing turn, as friends encouraged her to enroll at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, a renowned progressive and experimental institution that nurtured many famous artists.
