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The Brian Lehrer Show

The Great Migration and Culture

Dorothea Lange. On the Road to Los Angeles, California. 1937. Gelatin silver print, 8 1/16 x 7 3/4″ (20.4 x 19.7 cm), The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the Farm Security Administration.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public Library, and Leah Dickerman, curator of the painting and sculpture department at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), discuss the new exhibition "One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North" and New York's role in the cultural impact of the Great Migration.

→ Check out more images at MOMA's online interactive exhibition here.

 

"During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes.”
"During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes.” (The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. Acquired 1942. © 2015 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.)
“In every town Negroes were leaving by the hundreds to go North and enter into Northern industry.”
“In every town Negroes were leaving by the hundreds to go North and enter into Northern industry.” (The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. Acquired 1942. © 2015 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.)
“Another of the social causes of the migrants’ leaving was that at times they did not feel safe...They were arrested on the slightest provocation.”
“Another of the social causes of the migrants’ leaving was that at times they did not feel safe...They were arrested on the slightest provocation.” (The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. © 2015 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.)
“People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North.”
“People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North.” (The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. Acquired 1942. © 2015 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.)
Gordon Parks. Harlem Newsboy, Harlem, New York. 1943. Gelatin silver print, 14 1/8 × 14″.
Gordon Parks. Harlem Newsboy, Harlem, New York. 1943. Gelatin silver print, 14 1/8 × 14″. (The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the generosity of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art and Committee on Photography Fund.)
Dorothea Lange. On the Road to Los Angeles, California. 1937. Gelatin silver print, 8 1/16 x 7 3/4″.
Dorothea Lange. On the Road to Los Angeles, California. 1937. Gelatin silver print, 8 1/16 x 7 3/4″. (The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the Farm Security Administration. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY)
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