The Libraries are AppreciatedJacob Lawrence’s Library and Book Series

Jacob Lawrence created a series of paintings paying homage to the importance of libraries. The first one was created in 1943, soon after the completion of the Migration series. In addition, he created related works focusing on the book.

The Libraries are Appreciated, 1943

Seattle has been home to three artist born during the Jim Crow era. Everywhere the migrants turned there were barriers, roadblocks, outright refusals of entrance, especially to an education.

• James Washington, Jr. became an apprentice at the age of 14. He worked as a shoemaker, banana messenger and deckhand.

• August Wilson dropped out of school in the 10th grade after a teacher accused him of plagiarism.

• Jacob Lawrence was 16 when he ceased his formal education.

Each teenager found jobs requiring non-skilled labor requiring little or no education

Jacob Lawrence James W. Washington Jr. August Wilson

1917-2000 1909-2000 1945-2005

They were seekers. Consummate learners. Their lack of formal education did not deter them from the pursuit of knowledge. Self-motivate, self-educated, their artistic endeavors are rooted in knowledge gleaned from books and libraries.

Libraries in the Jim Crow era, were not free and not for all. Still, there were a few libraries that provided more access and resources than others.

The library has long been a refuge, the people’s university, a house of knowledge for the citizen scholar. A place without barrier to a seeker in pursuit of knowledge. As an entity it is a transmitter of thoughts, an idea monger, an essential resource for artists whose works are formed and informed by history and historical moments.

Arrested for trying to read a book in a segregated library. Albany, GA. 1962.

Four Students, 1961

“This [The Schomburg Library] became a favorite place of mine to go and work and do research. And this is where I think I read many of the books like books of DuBois, books of – well, he was one of my favorites – and many books like this.”

Jacob Lawrence

Pen and Ink, Untitled (Schomburg Library), 1946

135th Street Branch LibraryDivision of Negro History, Literature and Prints

New York Public Library

The Library, 1960

Library II, 1960

So I researched the material, took many notes. As most of us who do research do, we know that nine-tenths of what we take is never used but we have to take all of it in order to get that one-tenth. So this was the process.

Library III, 1960

Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man was published in 1952. James Meredith, in 1962 became the first African American to be admitted to a segregated university- The University of Mississippi.

Invisible Man among the Scholars, 1963

Students with Books, 1966

Courtyard Library, 1966

The Library, 1966

Dreams No.5: The Library, 1967

Schomburg Library, 1986

Carl Van Vechten Harlem Portrait Series, 1941