Lawrence, together with Romare Bearden, is probably the most well known of twentieth century African American painters. Lawrence's Migration Series made him nationally famous when it was featured in a 1941 issue of Fortune Magazine. The series depicts the great move north of blacks in the Depression years.
Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but moved many times over the course of his life, finally settling in Seattle, Washington in 1970 to become an art professor at the University of Washington.