MoMA Reunites Jacob Lawrence's Epic <em>Great Migration</em> Paintings In 2015

19 photos

Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 1: "During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 3: "In every town Negroes were leaving by the hundreds to go North and enter into Northern industry." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 14: "Among the social conditions that existed which was partly the cause of the migration was the injustice done to the Negroes in the courts." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 15: "Another cause was lynching. It was found that where there had been a lynching, the people who were reluctant to leave at first left immediately after this." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 17: "The migration was spurred on by the treatment of the tenant farmers by the planter." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 48: "Housing for the Negroes was a very difficult problem." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 52: "One of the largest race riots occurred in East St. Louis." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 58: "In the North the Negro had better educational facilities." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 22: "Another of the social causes of the migrants' leaving was that at times they did not feel safe, or it was not the best thing to be found on the streets late at night. They were arrested on the slightest provocation." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series. 1940-41. Panel 33: "People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North." (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Jacob Lawrence. Bus. 1941. (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

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Charles White's "Native Son," 1942 (The Charles White Archives)

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Cover of Josh White’s album Southern Exposure: An Album of Jim Crow Blues, with design by E. Simms Campbell. 1941 (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University Libraries)

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Dorothea Lange. On the Road to Los Angeles, California. 1937. (The Museum of Modern Art, New York)

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Gordon Parks. Harlem Newsboy, Harlem, New York. 1943. (The Museum of Modern Art, New York.)

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Spread from Langston Hughes, with woodcut by Jacob Lawrence. One Way Ticket. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1949. (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.)

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Cover and spread from Richard Wright, with photo-direction by Edwin Rosskam. 12 Million Black Voices. New York: Viking Press, 1941. Collection of Leon F. Litwack.

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Cover from William Attaway, with dust jacket by Charles Alston. Blood on the Forge. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1941. (Collection of Leon F. Litwack)

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