Jacob Lawrence's epic "Migration Series" powerfully and poignantly recounted the mass exodus of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North in search of a better life during and after World War I. “The Migration Series, No. 58” illustrates children reveling in education, a right that they were denied in the South. Lawrence (1917 – 2000), whose own parents were migrants, extensively researched the Great Migration before creating his vibrant 60-panel narrative. The piece was a critical success when it was first exhibited in 1941 and two major museums bought all of the paintings, making Lawrence one of the first African-Americans to be embraced by the segregated art world.

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