Comparing Life in the North and South

Gordon Parks

New York, New York. Harlem Apartment House 

1943

Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC

Jacob Lawrence embarked on a lifelong artistic journey to depict the everyday experiences of Black Americans. Lawrence depicted common things he saw every day growing up in Harlem, NY, to inspire his artwork.  This photograph of Harlem apartments captures the real life of Black Americans, specifically how they lived.

Lawrence depicts a similar scene in Panel No. 31 of The Migration Series. When they arrived North, many Black Americans had to live in tenement housing, which was different from housing in the South because they were typically single-family dwellings converted into overcrowded, poorly maintained multiple-family dwellings to accommodate the increasing population. In this lesson, students use Lawrence’s artwork to better understand the differences and similarities between life in the South and life in the North.

Russel Lee

Sleeping Children

1941

Gelatin silver print

Farm Security Administration, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. 

Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series depicted the journey of hundreds of thousands of African Americans who left the South to travel North in hopes of a better life. While life in the North was generally better, it was far from perfect. Lawrence’s Migration Series depicted the good as well as the harsh realities of life in the North. In this way, he wanted to show the complexity of the Black experience in America.

This particular photograph by Russell Lee captures some of the harsh realities of life in the North. Tenements—apartment buildings with multiple spaces to rent that became known for their poor living conditions—were often overcrowded with multiple families living in one space. In this lesson, students compare life in the South to life in the North.

Jacob Lawrence 

The Migration Series, Panel no. 45 The migrants arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North

Casein tempera on hardboard

12 x 18 in.

Acquired 1942, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC © 2020 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Hundreds of thousands of African Americans traveled North in search of better opportunities. Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series chronicles this journey. In the South, African Americans endured blatant discrimination and segregation as part of Jim Crow laws, as well as poor economic conditions. These were some of the factors that compelled Southern Blacks to migrate North.

In this panel in particular, Lawrence shows what seems to be a family on a train headed to Pittsburgh, one of the largest industrial centers in the 1930s and 1940s. Pittsburgh provided different economic opportunities that were not available in the rural South. In this lesson, students use Lawrence’s panels to help them compare life in the South to life in the North.

Jacob Lawrence 

The Migration Series, Panel No. 33: Letters from relatives in the north told of the better life there.

1940-41

Casein tempera on hardboard

12 x 18 in.

Acquired 1942, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC © 2020 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Migration Series depicts the journey of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South to the North. The migrants left the South because of blatant discrimination and segregation as part of Jim Crow laws, as well as poor economic conditions. They hoped that the North would provide them with improved living and working conditions. In many cases, only one family member traveled North, leaving behind the rest of the family (who sometimes joined them in the North later). Those who went North would write letters to their family who remained in the South, detailing what life was like. In this lesson, students use Lawrence’s panels to help them compare life in the South and the North.