Migration panel 28. The labor agent who had been sent South by Northern industry was a very familiar person in the Negro counties.

Labor agents (recruiters) were often sent down South from from the North during World War I when companies struggled to keep up with demand. To black Southerners, these agents were seemingly the herald of opportunity. Lawrence depicts a white labor agent writing on a sheet of yellow paper, presumably the names of new recruits. A line of men looking for work extends beyond him into the barren landscape. While Lawrence conveys a tone of hope and opportunity through these men, dark overtones of the work conditions and treatment that lie ahead of them are unavoidable.
SKU: 65211
Creator: Jacob Lawrence
Date: 1940-41
Original Medium: Tempera on gesso on composition board
Original Size: 18 x 12 in
Location: Museum of Modern Art, NY
© 2016 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York