"The Migration of the Negro Series #15, another : Another cause was lynching, the people who were reluctant to leave at first left immediately after this (Tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18) By Jacob Lawrence

The Migration of the Negro Series #15

Jacob Lawrence 

This painting, by Jacob Lawrence, is a piece of a series called "The Migration of the Negro".  The series stretched from 1940 to 1941, and depicted different the aspects of life for African Americans in the South. In this particular painting, Lawrence portrays what seems to be a black person sitting on a rock near a lynching tree, hunched over. The colors in the painting are dull and somber, and the eye is drawn to the rope and the shirt of the sobbing figure. While there aren't many elements to this piece, which is contradictory to most Harlem paintings which were commonly busy with colors and images, it has a powerful message.


What makes this piece unique is that it focuses on the history of the people before Harlem.The series' prime emphasis is the Great Migration, and displays the trials and tribulations of life in the South and what motivated them to come North. In this particular piece, the overall tone shown is depressing and solemn. The subject matter, being extreme racial hatred is deliberate and blunt, portrayed by boldness of the rope and the figure.


The power of this piece is simplistic yet bold, leaving the onlooker feeling speechlessly dismal. The rawness of the black and orange against the blankness of the background is a testament to the atrocities of racism and violence, and how plain face these were in our society at the time. In the time period that this piece was made, racism and segregation still permeated through the country. It was commonplace, and almost expected in everyday life. This painting takes those elements of familiarity. The rock, the tree, the simple line and mute colors unveils the true criminal that racism is, leaving a clear view of the horror and despair that the violence of discrimination leaves.


The Harlem Renaissance theme that this painting translates is the desire to fight oppression, because it is clear that Lawrence wanted the onlookers to see a perspective that held little sympathy in the 1940s. The shock and sadness that hits the observer is startling, and the image settles in the memory in a devastating way. The discomfort and lack of humanity that racial oppression poses on people displayed so plainly and so deplorably motivates the onlooker to change their perception of race and racial hierarchy. The violence and shock, the submission shown by the figure makes the cause more urgent and the boldness of that sadness -gives you a wake-up-call and a sense of haste to right that wrong.

Citations: http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/artwork/Lawrence-Migration_Series1.htm