The story of our migration is ongoing. Feeling inspired? Share your #Panel61

In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants kept coming.” Today, more than 70 years later, Lawrence’s epic narrative continues to have powerful reverberations.

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Your #Panel61 by Sylas Smith

Submitted by

Sylas
Smith

As a society we have turned black communities on themselves. We make black people think they are the enemy when in reality the only enemy is hate. The impact of the Great Migration on race relations in the United States is most effectively addressed when it relates to the increased mortality rate in African American communities. As a society, we focus so heavily on what black people have done to themselves, not taking into consideration what we have done to them. In 2017 alone, black men committed 36% of murders and made up 52% of murder victims. Most of those murder victims being other black people, but again as a society we continue to neglect the real reason for this issue. We are the reason, we are the influence, we are the issue. Not African Americans, not guns, not absent fathers, we are the reason. We turned black communities on each other and we have to suffer the consequences of these actions. We must stop making excuses and stop neglecting this tragedy that weighs so heavily on this community.