Jacob Lawrence The Migration Series,
Panel No. 1, 1940-41, Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Tribute to Jacob Lawrence, The Whitney Museum of American Art, 2001

JACOB LAWRENCE (1917-2000) was an African American, born in Atlantic City, who moved to Harlem in the 1930's. The patterns of everyday life, showing the struggles of black people over a period of 50 or 60 years are the subject of his paintings. The Whitney exhibition takes up an entire floor and is divided into six rooms. One room, titled The Migration of the Negro has 60 paintings. The painting that attracted me was the first one, labeled "During the war there was a great migration north by southern Negroes."

The painting is in a wooden frame and is about 12 by 18 inches. It shows numerous black men, women and children in a bus or train station. They are all going toward signs that indicate northern cities - St. Louis, Chicago, New York. Although the people do not have well defined shapes and their faces are not visible, you can differentiate adults from children by size and you can tell one person from the next by the different color of their clothing. Faces are all brown and each person sports one color, including red, orange, green, blue and yellow. The people are bunched up, making it seem like they are in a hurry to get to their destination. Jacob Lawrence was an extraordinarily gifted artist and his work is a milestone in the history of African American painting.

Demelis DeJesus