The Great Migration

ArtsEdge (The National Arts and Education Network), part of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, offers lesson plans to help young people become better acquainted with art through “creative use of technology.” I recently learned about a new lesson plan from ArtsEdge that focuses on Jacob Lawrence’s The Great Migration. Here is an excerpt from the lesson description:

In this lesson, students will learn about the migration of African Americans to Harlem, beginning with the original migration of blacks to North America. Students will explore paintings by Jacob Lawrence to understand the experience of blacks who migrated from the South. Then students will take a closer look at Harlem and its place in African American history and make a travel brochure of Harlem’s historic landmarks. Finally, students will create a mural representing one period studied in the lesson, such as the migration from Africa, life in the South, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, or the Great Depression.

In an extension of the lesson children are asked to consider that when Africans were forced to migrate to North America during the slave trade they couldn’t bring any material possessions and later when African Americans migrated from the South to the North they brought very few belongings because many were poor and the trip was long and difficult. Instead they carried valuables in their minds and hearts. Students are asked to imagine what things the migrants might have packed in their “mind’s suitcase.” After studying The Great Migration what do you imagine they carried with them? How does this book challenge or reinforce your perspective of African American history?