The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. © 2004 Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). "During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes," panel 1 from The Migration of the Negro, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 inches.

Influenced by success stories of those who had already made the trip, African-American families sent their fathers and sons to the rail yards of Pennsylvania, the steel mills of Pittsburgh, and the packinghouses of Chicago. Railway stations were often flooded with hundreds of migrants, ready to start the journey.