Jacob Lawrence : the migration series

Author / Creator

Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000

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Summary

Through a series of paintings, Jacob Lawrence illustrates the mass exodus of African-Americans who moved to the North in search for a better life. Lawrence's parents were among those who migrated b...

Through a series of paintings, Jacob Lawrence illustrates the mass exodus of African-Americans who moved to the North in search for a better life. Lawrence's parents were among those who migrated between 1916-1919, considered the first wave of the migration. The Great Migration was the largest movement of black people since slavery removed Africans to the Americas. The paintings are accompanied by captions that combine history, sociology, and poetry.

Documents Lawrence's cycle of 60 paintings, collectively titled "The Migration of the Negro," painted in 1940-1941, now in the collections of The Phillips Collection and The Museum of Modern Art. Lawrence's original narrative text accompanies the color plates; his 1993 revised text appears in the checklist

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