For Jacob Lawrence, reality is caricature of the heightened gesture. His paintings are essentially narrative and were often done in series. Simple, intensely colored shapes define his figures and their environment.

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Lawrence moved with his mother to New York in 1924. He went to Utopia Children's House after school, where he was first given poster paints and other art materials. In 1937, he received a scholarship to the American Artist School. After receiving a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1940, he began work on his Migration series.

A public relations officer in the Coast Guard, Lawrence painted servicemen and port scenes which were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1944. After his term of service, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946 and began a cycle of paintings related to the them of war; from 1947 to 1949 he focused on genre scenes in the South. After the early 1960's, he dealt with the theme of civil rights struggles in the South and the growth of Black nationalism.