CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/29/2015

Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series

Featured image is panel 52 of The Migration Series (1940-41) by Jacob Lawrence. His eerie caption: "One of the largest race riots occurred in East St. Louis." Jodi Roberts writes, "The violence, aimed principally at African-American communities, left dozens dead and hundreds injured, and created a fortune in property damage; whole swaths of the city were burned out. Fearful for their lives, more than 6,000 black residents of East St. Louis fled. The uprising spurred protests across the country. In a speech in Harlem, the black activist Marcus Garvey called the riot a 'massacre that will go down in history as one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind for which any class of people could be held guilty.' On July 28, 10,000 people joined a silent march down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, holding signs demanding justice and equal rights for blacks across the nation."