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Jacob Lawrence

A painting of a large crowd of people at a train station heading to Chicago, New York, and St. Louis

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 1: During World War I there was a great migration north by southern African Americans. (between 1940 and 1941)

A group of people, carrying their belongings, traveling north.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 3: From every southern town migrants left by the hundreds to travel north. (between 1940 and 1941)

A steam locamotive travels through the dark with the bell ringing.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 5: Migrants were advanced passage on the railroads, paid for by northern industry. Northern industry was to be repaid by the migrants out of their future wages. (between 1940 and 1941)

Vertical rows of abstract green plants alternatitng with rows of orange and red stripes.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 7: The migrant, whose life had been rural and nurtured by the earth, was now moving to urban life dependent on industrial machinery. (between 1940 and 1941)

Five cotton plants with boll weevills eating them.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 9: They left because the boll weevil had ravaged the cotton crop. (between 1940 and 1941)

A mother slices food for her child, who is peering over the table watching her.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 11: Food had doubled in price because of the war. (between 1940 and 1941)

The sun beats down on a field of dead crops.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 13: The crops were left to dry and rot. There was no one to tend them. (between 1940 and 1941)

A person sits alone, bent over in sadness. A single branch reaching across the image with a noose.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 15: There were lynchings. (between 1940 and 1941)

Two black tenant farmers bring crops to be weighed to a white foreman.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 17: Tenant farmers received harsh treatment at the hands of planters. (between 1940 and 1941)

A white woman drinks from a water fountain on one side of the river. On the otherside a black woman and her child drink from a separate fountain.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 19: There had always been discrimination. (between 1940 and 1941)

Five people wait at a train station with their belongings. Two stand, while three sit.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 21: Families arrived at the station very early. They did not wish to miss their trains north. (between 1940 and 1941)

A group of people boarding train cars.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 23: The migration spread. (between 1940 and 1941)

An empty room with the window covered by a green curtain.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 25: They left their homes. Soon some communities were left almost empty. (between 1940 and 1941)

A man buys his train ticket at the train station, while his family sits on their trunk nearby.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 27: Many men stayed behind until they could take their families north with them. (between 1940 and 1941)

A white man has three black men sign a contract.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 29: The labor agent recruited unsuspecting laborers as strike breakers for northern industries. (between 1940 and 1941)