Ringgold's tumultous marriage to Earl Wallace lasted only 4 years (Ringgold 54). In that time she had two daughters Michele and Barbara. She chose to leave her husband in order to protect herself and her children from his drug habit. Ringgold's mother helped with the children and Faith graduated from City College with a B.S. in Fine Art in 1955 and got a job teaching in the New York City Public School system at Junior

High School #136 in Harlem. In 1959 she then completed her Master's degree in Art at City College(Ringgold 55).

In 1962 Faith Ringgold married a long-time friend Burdette Ringgold. Faith says, "Birdie was part of a pre-sixties consciousness (among some black men) and was confident enough to subordinate his own achievements in favor of his wife's( Ringgold 57). They are together today after many years of on again off again separations.

Faith Ringgold, her mother Willa Posey and Faith's two daughters Michele and Barbara took their first trip to Europe in 1961, to tour the museums of Paris, Nice, Florence, and Rome. Faith wrote, " somehow I felt that being in Europe--where Picasso, Matisse, Monet and other great painters had lived--would lead me to the answer" (Ringgold 131). The answer to her question of whether she could be an artist or not. They had to end their trip suddenly when her brother Andrew passed away due to a heroin overdose (Ringgold 138).

In the early 60's Ringgold was trying to get gallery representation and involvement in the New York art community. Ringgold made an unsuccessful attempt to join Spiral, a Black Artist's group, by writing Romare Bearden, an important artist involved in the group. Spiral was formed in 1962, it was a Black artist's group of 13 men and I woman, Emma Amos. Painter Vivian Browne coined them the "old men of black art" (Ringgold 150). Romare Bearden was not interested in extended an invitation to join the group, but he did include her in a group show entitled Art of the American Negro curated by him in 1966. This was her first gallery appearance (Ringgold 150).

Ringgold looked for a gallery on the prestigious East 57th Street area in New York City, but there were no guidelines to follow on which galleries to approach because none showed the work of Black women artists. Jacob Lawrence, represented by ACA Galleries, was the only black artist to be shown in this area (Ringgold 143).

Faith was invited to join Spectrum Gallery in 1960 a co-op gallery run by Robert Newman, a poet and critic. There were 20 artists involved in the gallery--only 5 were women and Ringgold was the only black artist (Ringgold 155).

Ringgold started her first mature work in 1963, the American People Series. With a style she termed SuperRealism. Ringgold describes the style, "the idea was to make a statement in my art about the Civil Rights Movement and what was happening to Black people in America at the time, and to make it super-real" (Ringgold 144). American People had been about complicated interrelations of black and white people stuggling with fear and inequality (Ringgold 173).