War Series: Victory 1947

Jacob Lawrence painted this panel of his War Series, entitled Victory, using tempera on board. Lawrence was part of the Great Migration generation, and his work often engages with questions of labor, migration, and war. The series responds to his own experience of military service during World War Two. While the title suggests triumph, here we see a soldier bowed down, rifle in hand, but head lowered. Lawrence offers us a critical view of the armed forces. Although the U.S. military was officially desegregated in 1948, African Americans still faced discrimination and segregation within the ranks during World War Two. To understand Lawrence’s work more fully, historians consider military archives, newspapers, and personal narratives. These resources help to contextualize the social and institutional forces shaping both Lawrence's art and the experiences of African American soldiers during the war.