Jacob Lawrence painted a series of scenes illustrating the migration of blacks from the south to the north during World War I to work jobs left by GIs and live the promise of equality and autonomy. He published these images in a book entitled 'The Great Migration', 1993, with captions describing the hopes and hardships endured by people before, during and after moving to northern industrial cities.
It's a skillful visual to a piece of American history neglected by grade school curriculum, in my experience anyway. Lawrence painted all the panels at the same time with the same palette to unify the paintings with color, and emboldened the narration with block shapes and chunky lines by omitting detail.
I place it first on this blog because I read the book today, and it is relatable in that we all hail from a migration story. Knowing it gives us place and voice among all the others.
For more of a summary about Lawrence and his body of work listen or read this NPR story...
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/04/10/398806751/painting-the-epic-drama-of-the-great-migration-the-work-of-jacob-lawrence
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