Migration panel 40. The migrants arrived in great numbers.

Arranged in separate groups, migrants travel across empty, barren land from left to right on the panel. Centrally, a young boy joyously swings his suitcase behind him, swaying back and forth as he walks. Although not an overwhelming presence in the painting visually, Lawrence’s placement of the boy centrally on the panel holds much more significance than what meets the eye. He is a beacon of hope for a better life: the crucial role more optimism in a trying time and the center of the drive behind the Great Migration. This panel serves as an anomaly in the Migration series, countering the depictions of hardships faced by black Southerners.
SKU: 65205
Creator: Jacob Lawrence
Date: 1940-41
Original Medium: Tempera on gesso on composition board
Original Size: 12 x 18 in
Location: Museum of Modern Art, NY
© 2016 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York