Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917-2000). <em>The '20's...The Migrants Cast Their Ballots</em>, 1974. Screenprint, Sheet: 34 1/8 x 27 5/8 in. (86.7 x 70.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lorillard, 76.77.8. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 76.77.8_PS9.jpg)

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Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917-2000). The '20's...The Migrants Cast Their Ballots, 1974. Screenprint, Sheet: 34 1/8 x 27 5/8 in. (86.7 x 70.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lorillard, 76.77.8. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 76.77.8_PS9.jpg)

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What's happening in this scene?

This is "The '20's... The Migrants Cast Their Ballots," by Jacob Lawrence. It shows people exercising their right to vote. This work, like his most famous series, "The Migration Series," to which it belongs, focuses on the everyday lives of people during the 20's and 30's, especially black Americans migrating to the North.

This print was also made after the prompt "what does independence mean to you?," a question posed to artists as part of the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio, made for the American Bicentennial in 1976.

The '20's...The Migrants Cast Their Ballots

Jacob Lawrence

Contemporary Art

These three screenprints represent a later period in Jacob Lawrence’s career, when he turned his attention to printmaking. Extending a theme from his earlier work—the sixty panels of his landmark Migration Series (1941)—here he continues to treat the history of African Americans who had migrated to the North in great numbers between the 1920s and the 1940s.The artist said:

To me, migration means movement. There was conflict and struggle. But out of the struggle came a kind of power and even beauty. “And the migrants kept coming” is a refrain of triumph over adversity.

The ’20’s . . . The Migrants Cast Their Ballots shows black people exercising the right to vote. The Builders and Harlem Street Scene show Lawrence’s interest in the vibrancy of everyday life—not only in the particular activities shown, but in the humanity and dignity of the people.

PORTFOLIO/SERIES Kent Bicentennial Portfolio / Spirit of Independence

ARTIST Jacob Lawrence, American, 1917-2000

MEDIUM Screenprint

DATES 1974

DIMENSIONS Sheet: 34 1/8 x 27 5/8 in. (86.7 x 70.2 cm) Image: 32 x 24 1/8 in. (81.3 x 61.3 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Signed, "Jacob Lawrence" lower right

INSCRIPTIONS Written below bottom edge of image: at left, "5/125"; in center "The 1920's ... The Migrants arrive and cast their Ballots"; at right, "Jacob Lawrence 1974"

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 76.77.8

CREDIT LINE Gift of Lorillard

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917-2000). The '20's...The Migrants Cast Their Ballots, 1974. Screenprint, Sheet: 34 1/8 x 27 5/8 in. (86.7 x 70.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lorillard, 76.77.8. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 76.77.8_PS9.jpg)

EDITION Edition: 5/125

IMAGE overall, 76.77.8_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2017

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

What's happening in this scene?

This print was also made after the prompt "what does independence mean to you?," a question posed to artists as part of the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio, made for the American Bicentennial in 1976.