1. T HE H ARLEM R ENAISSANCE Jacob Lawrence By: Jay Williams

2. B IRTH DATE AND DEATH Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 7, 1917, and died June 9, 2000.

3. E ARLY LIFE Jacob Lawrence moved to Easton, PN, at the age of 2. When his parents separated in 1924, his mother deposited him and his two younger siblings in foster care in Philadelphia, and went to work in New York City. When he was 13, Lawrence joined his mother in Harlem.

4. A DULT LIFE Jacob dropped out of school at 16 but took classes at the Harlem Art Workshop with Charles Aston and frequently visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1937, Lawrence won a scholarship to the American Artists School in New York. When he graduated in 1939, he received funding from the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. He had already developed his own style of modernism, and began creating narrative series, painting 30 or more paintings on one subject. He completed his best- known series, Migration of the Negro or simply The Migration Series, in 1941. The series was exhibited at Edith Halpert's Downtown Gallery in 1942, making Lawrence the first African-American to join the gallery.

5. J OB At the outbreak of World War II, Lawrence was drafted into the United States Coast Guard. After being briefly stationed in Florida and Massachusetts, he was assigned to be the Coast Guard artist aboard a troopship, documenting the experience of war around the world. He produced 48 paintings during this time, all of which have been lost. After leaving Hillside, Lawrence turned his attention to the theater. In 1951, he painted works based on memories of performances at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He also began teaching again, first at Pratt Institute and later the New School for Social Research and the Art Students League.

6. M OST KNOWN FOR He was most known for his paintings.

7. S OME WORK

8. R ESOURCES http://www.biography.com/people/jacob-lawrence- 9375562 http://sgpart.blogspot.com/2012/02/paintings-in- style-of-jacob-lawrence.html http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/harlem/harlem.html