Jacob Lawrence was born on September 7, 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He married Gwendolyn Knight, a sculptor and painter, in 1941. He lived in New York City's Harlem most of his life. He was also the most widely claimed African-American artist of the 20th century. He dropped out of school at 16 but took art classes at the Harlem Art Workshop with Charles Aston. In 1937, he received a scholarship to the American Artists School in New York. He brought the African-American experience to life using blacks and browns juxtaposed with vivid colors. His best-known series was Migration of the Negro was exhibited at Edith Halbert's Downtown Gallery in 1942, making him the first African-American of the museum. He died on June 9, 2000 in Seattle, Washington