Housing for black workers was high in demand in large cities such as New York and Chicago. However, with this demand came much discrimination white landlords, causing black neighborhoods to be more densely populated and expensive. Often residencies would house several families at a time; a common problem.  Peering through the frame of a bed into the room of a shared residence full of numerous other beds, Lawrence places the viewer in the place in the place of the resident themselves. Through the dynamicity of horizontal and vertical lines, Lawrence uses the bars of the bed frames as visual motifs for feelings of containment and restraint, emotions that many African Americans felt as a result of their housing arrangements after migrating North.

SKU: 65197
Creator: Jacob Lawrence
Date: 1940-41
Original Medium: Tempera on gesso on composition board
Original Size: 18 x 12 in
Location: Museum of Modern Art, NY
© 2016 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York