During twentieth century American literature and culture, there were many poets, artists and modernist writers who were influenced by the memories of both the civil war and the Jim Crow law. These people often compared the recollection of events to the visual of America, after it ended. For example, Jacob Lawrence was a black African American artist during the twentieth century. He is most famously known for his collection of fifty nine paintings called ‘The Migration of the Negro Series’. These paintings are a series of pictures that portray the life of the Great Migration, of over three million African Americans travelling from the rural south to urban north cities in hope of a better life. This occurred between the years 1900 and 1930, during the First World War. ‘The Migration of the Negro Series’ can be seen as a representation of a transition from a traumatic past, to an uncertain future. The migrants who left do not know whether the north will provide a greater or worse destiny, ‘the migration of African Americans from the South to the North in the middle of the twentieth century, it seemed as if the migrants were moving from the past into the future, or at least into the present. It seemed as if they were entering the modem era, were becoming modem, were becoming modernists, were creating and recreating what modem was and meant, what it looked and sounded like.’ (Niedzielski-Eichner, 2009, 3364331.)
The collection of paintings is a vivid inside to a huge historical event, Lawrence brings the story of inequality and discrimination to life through his emotional response. Southern parts of the USA were hit hard particularly by the Depression, since the portion of people did not recover from the Civil War costs. Migrants left to escape the racial discrimination they faced in the south where the Jim Crow law was still in place. The migration to the north began throughout the First World War, where thousands of Black Americans travelled to the north from rural life, to find employment and equality in urban industrial cities of the country. This migration was the only way for African Americans to escape lynchings, unemployment and oppression. Throughout the collection ‘The Migration of the Negro Series’ the relationship between memory and visual is both a distressing, yet cultural transition. This is because memories of the south were so tragic and painful, yet the blissful visual of the north was only temporary. Lawrence expresses that the recollection of the South is now both empty and forgotten, this can be seen through Panel number twenty five ‘They left their homes. Soon some communities were left almost empty.’ For this painting Lawrence demonstrates a picture of a wooden room which is abandoned and deserted, which reflects the daunting, fearsome past the African Americans left behind. The visual of the south portrays a life of decay, it is a representation of a rural area rotting away. Anyone who did stay would have eventually died from lynching. Most of the lynchings were by shooting or hanging, it was a cruel combination of racism and sadism. This can be seen through painting number fifteen, ‘Another cause was lynching. It was found that where there had been a lynching, the people who were reluctant to leave at first left immediately after this.’
Despite the future of the Black Americans being uncertain, the visual of the north was believed to offer Lawrence and every other migrant a better future. The urban cities offered the migrants a chance at a life of equality, more opportunities and social freedom. Many African Americans also took advantage of the industrial workers needed, which first arose during the First World War. As portrayed through a number of paintings, Lawrence demonstrates how the north offered a preferred and improved way of living. Panel number thirty three is a painting of two women, lying in bed reading a letter from a relative living in the north, telling of a better life. As the letter is unseen to the reader, we can only anticipate that it is full of praise, as the life that the north could offer these deprived African Americans is an improved opportunity. The two female figures drawn from Lawrence’s vivid memory, represents what looks to be a mother and daughter sharing a single bed between them. The room in the painting appears very small and basic, with no other essentials or even a window. From this we can gather how these African Americans were living a life of long existence of poverty, underprivileged from any of the benefits of modernity. This made the visual of the north very gripping for those suffering with starvation and hardship.
Painting number thirty seven is of the industrial works, Lawrence captions reads ‘Many migrants found work in the steel industry’. This again reinforces the opportunities and freedom that could be found in the north, migrants were offered modernized jobs in industrial factories and railroads with a better pay. This highlights how memories of life in the south were detestable. African Americans were taken advantage of by white farmers and business owners to fill in low paid jobs, which did not even cover the cost of food and many were forced to live in extreme poverty. ‘Since the arrival of Whites in the interior of the country, an unequal society developed, in which the majority of the poor were Black, rural and unemployed. Although the wages of Blacks began to increase in the 1970s, by the beginning of the 1990s close to half of the Black population still subsisted below the poverty line.’ (Johan Fourie, 2007, pp.1270 – 1296)
However, despite the vision of a better destiny, the life of freedom and equality only lasted for a short period of time for the black Americans. As there were over three hundred and fifty thousand black people who left for the north who were already joining twenty two million people, the rural population began to increase rapidly. This meant the promise of an improved quality life for so many, slowly disappeared. Problems such as food doubling in price and lack of houses started to occur, and the migrants were starting to become treated with the same inequality as the laws in the south. Painting number forty seven highlights migrants forced to sleep on the floors, in overcrowded rooms. Lawrence’s caption for the portrait reads ‘As the migrant population grew, good housing became scarce. Workers were forced to live in overcrowded and dilapidated tenement houses.’ The room painted portrays a dim, narrow space with a single window, Lawrence has drawn up to eight migrants sharing the floor. The standard of living in the north had slipped and the African American were the ones forced to suffer the consequences. This can also be said to link with panel fifty five, a very vivid and dark painting of three men carrying a coffin of a migrant, whose death was due to the diseases spread by overpopulation. The description of the canvas states ‘The migrants, having moved suddenly into a crowded and unhealthy environment, soon contracted tuberculosis. The death rate rose.’ From this we can gather that again the African Americans, who came to the north in search for a preferred, equal life were being denied this opportunity. The visual of the north demonstrated throughout the paintings gets worse in time, highlighting that both the relationship between memory and visual is evenly traumatic.
Despite migrants moving into new areas to help improve the situation, they were bombed. This can be seen through painting number fifty one, as it exposes three buildings that are covered in bright orange flames, being blown up by white Americans, ‘African Americans seeking to find better housing attempted to move into new areas. This resulted in the bombing of their new homes.’ From this it is evident that the visual of the north is no longer the perfect dream the migrants imagined, Lawrence depicts that it is the same, if not, worse than the south. Martin Luther King Jr. described Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1960s as "the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States" in the 1960s. Rather than integrate its public parks and playgrounds, the city closed them. Opponents of civil rights for African-Americans bombed black homes and businesses. The violence got so bad that the city was nicknamed "Bombingham." (Anonymous, Dec 10-Dec 17, 2012, 32.)
Despite the unequal and biased rights continuing, during this process of adjustment many materials were provided for black writers, as there were a huge demand for jobs. Between the year’s nineteen twenty and nineteen thirty, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement which kindled the black cultural identity. This centre of movement included many important and influential poets, novelists and artists, for example the poet Langston Hughes. Hughes is known as the leader of Harlem Renaissance for his signature poem ‘The Negro Speaks of River’. This poem celebrates the voice and soul of black community in the time of racial intolerance and inequality in America. Hughes was inspired by the beauty of the Mississippi river when writing the meaning within the words. He was also reminded of the river’s role in sustaining slavery in America. ‘The Negro Speaks of River’ is a representation of four great rivers in the Middle East, Africa and America, connecting both the soul and the heritage of the American community. It charts the journey of African Americans to the birth of civilization, as Hughes portrays the tale of freedom and enslavement that he and his people have endured.
The relationship between memory and visual throughout the poem is similar to ‘The Migration of the Negro Series’ as the memories are agonizing to look back upon due to slavery and unequal freedom, yet the visual is contented because in the end the slaves are free. Within line nine of the poem Hughes draws close attention to the darkness of the rivers, ‘I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln // went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen it’s muddy // bosom turn all golden in the sunset.’ Here the adjective ‘muddy’ could be argued to be a metaphor for skin colour, in the context of slavery, however the river is turned ‘golden’ when slavery is abolished and slaves are freed.
Hughes poem challenges the slavery which occurred between the years 1609 and 1860, however, Lawrence’s collection of paintings focuses on the enslavement of African Americans throughout the years 1900 and 1940. Despite this both ‘The Negro Speaks of River’ and ‘The Migration of the Negro Series’ are linked to historical travel narratives. Lawrence’s journey embarks from rural southern states, focusing on the movement to modernised cities such as New York and Chicago. In theory it is a transition from an excruciating past to a better destiny, where the migrants were free to live their lives in equality, despite this only lasting for a short period. This is similar to the journey throughout the poem ‘The Negro Speaks of River’ as it focuses on the transition of four rivers, which also represent the transition of life as an unbearable memory to a peaceful, visual. The poem ends with the sentence ‘My soul has grown deep like the rivers.’ From this we can depict that Hughes is referring to someone who has witnessed this tremendous, unpleasant journey. However someone who has experienced the pain of inequality, poverty and slavery is finally at peace, as they have grown stronger from this horrendous stage of life. In this case, the harmonious, equal reality of life has overpowered the traumatic memories.
To conclude, I feel that the relationship between memory and visual is very similar throughout these two pieces of work. As Lawrence and Hughes both focus on a transition from a traumatic past, to an uncertain yet better future. It offers the migrants a chance at a life of freedom and equality without slavery or poverty.