In this book by Nancy Howard, we meet Jacob Lawrence and his paintings. Later in this unit, his series on the African American migration to the North will play an important role and there I will include more biographical material. At this point, students will focus on his three series of paintings related to three champions of resistance: Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, and John Brown. All three began their lives as ordinary people living within circumstances where one might not expect their extraordinary qualities to blossom forth.
In her book, Howard selects paintings from each series, presenting them along with Lawrence's own words. With each series, she presents three suggestions for activities which the reader or teacher could use in exploring Lawrence's work. Color coded, each project goes deeper into his paintings and the various issues surrounding them. There are a wide variety of suggestions from which to choose. Some encourage a closer examination of particular pictures, some examine his style and techniques, and some require the student to actively create from what Lawrence's work suggests.
Students should be drawn to Lawrence's work. It is full of color, movement, and emotion. It shows ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It is easily contrasted to the work of Ron Brown and Faith Ringgold.
Students will be given background information on Tubman, Douglass, and Brown. Some will be asked to do related research which will be shared with the entire group. With the inclusion of John Brown as a figure to be examined, I hope to be able to show that ordinary white people sometimes broke the stereotype of the mean, racist image, an image that could easily be built in the minds of African American students.