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Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence Books

Painter

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“To me, migration means movement. While I was painting, I thought about trains and people walking to the stations. I thought about field hands leaving their farms to become factory workers, and about the families that sometimes got left behind. The choices made were hard ones, so I wanted to show what made the people get on those northbound trains. I also wanted to show just what it cost to ride them. Uprooting yourself from one way of life to make your way in another involves conflict and struggle. But out of the struggle comes a kind of power, and even beauty. I tried to convey this in the rhythm of the pictures, and in the repetition of certain images. "And the migrants kept coming" is a refrain of triumph over adversity. My family and others left the South on a quest for freedom, justice, and dignity. If our story rings true for you today, then it must still strike a chord in our American experience.”

ArtMovementTravelAfrican AmericansBlacksMigrationPaintingsGreat Migration
Book:The Great Migration: An American Story
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“I've always been interested in history, but they never taught Negro history in the public schools...I don't see how a history of the United States can be written honestly without including the Negro. I didn't [paint] just as a historical thing, but because I believe these things tie up with the Negro today. We don't have a physical slavery, but an economic slavery. If these people, who were so much worse off than the people today, could conquer their slavery, we can certainly do the same thing....I am not a politician. I'm an artist, just trying to do my part to bring this thing about.”

PeopleIfsTryingBelieveStatesTodaySchoolArtistI BelieveUnitedUnited StatesWrittenEconomicTaughtPoliticianSlaveryHistoricalPaintIncludingHonestlyConquerTiesPublic SchoolEconomic Slavery
Author:Jacob Lawrence
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“"Humanism" is to be human, to think, to analyze, and to probe. To respond and to be stimulated by all living things - beasts, fowl, and fishes. To respond through touch, sight, smell, and sound to all things in nature - both organic and inorganic-to colors, shapes, and textures - to not only look at a blade of grass but to really see a blade of grass. These things, to me, are what life and living are all about. I would call it "Humanism."”

ThinkingHumansLooksSoundAtheismColorShapesLife And LivingAll ThingsSightHumanismFishesPositive AtheismSmellGrassBeastBladesLiving ThingsTextureBlades Of GrassFowl
Author:Jacob Lawrence
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