Jacob Lawrence's John Brown Series, originally a set of 22 images painted in gouache on paper, was begun in New Orleans during the artist's honeymoon.  The Legend of John Brown series is based on the life of the abolitionist who believed himself to be on a divine mission to abolish slavery and whose obsession led to his death by hanging after the incident at Harper's Ferry.  Lawrence used John Brown's story as an analogy to the African American struggle for equal rights in the mid-20th century.  The images reflect Lawrence's dramatic narrative abilities through economy of means with large, flat forms, pure colors, and an extreme reduction of detail.

America's first major African American artist, Lawrence's work evolved at the time of the Harlem Renaissance, the Jazz Age, and the Great Depression.  He moved with his mother to Harlem in 1929, where he attended Utopia House and became interested in arts and crafts under the tutelage of Charles Alston.  After study with Alston and Henry Bannarn at the Harlem Art Workshop, he was awarded a scholarship to the American Artists School.  Lawrence painted numerous series about African Americans and their history, and the exhibition of his Migration series at the Downtown Gallery in 1941 was the first for an African American artist.  Major exhibitions of his works were held at the Whitney Museum and in 1986 at the Seattle Art Museum.