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Mix It up!

On "Swap Ideas Day," go out and share your thoughts for the benefit of humanity!

Early in his career, artist Jacob Lawrence exchanged ideas with prominent writers Langston Hughes and Claude McKay, whom he met through his teacher Charles Alston. Lawrence also drew upon the experiences of his family and neighbors, especially in his sixty-painting series "The Migration of the Negro," which chronicled the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to northern cities.

Today's painting was inspired by a quotation from the writings of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. This philosophy of respect epitomizes Lawrence's later work, much of which focused on the Civil Rights movement.

Source: Rachel Kranz and Philip J. Koslow, eds. The Biographical Dictionary of African Americans (New York: Facts on File, 1999).

Pictured: Jacob Lawrence, 1917–2000, "Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them."—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, VIII:59. From the series "Great Ideas of Western Man.", 1958, oil on fiberboard, 20 3/4 x 16 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America.