THE GREAT MIGRATIONJacob Lawrence

What are the reasons African Americans left

the South?

Life in the Rural SouthWhen wages were paid, they averaged about 75¢ a day before World War I.

A minister from Alabama commented,

"The Negro farm hand gets his compensation hardly more than the mule he plows; that is his board and shelter. Some mules fare better than Negroes."

I am fed up With Jim Crow laws.People who are cruel

And afraid,Who lynch and run,

Who are scared of meAnd me of them.I pick up my life And take it away

On a one-way ticket—Gone up North,Gone out West,

Gone

--Langston Hughes, One Way Ticket (1949);

How did African Americans travel to the North?

Under what circumstances were they traveling?

What did African Americans hope to find in the North?

What realities did they face upon arrival?

Source: http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence/art/migration_series.html

Lawrence on his art

I don't think in terms of history about that series. I think in terms of contemporary life. It was such a part of me that I didn't think of something outside. It was like I was doing a portrait of something. If it was a portrait, it was a portrait of myself, a portrait of my family, a portrait of my peers.

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)Source: http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence/art/migration_series.html