What does it require to pick up and leave everything and everyone you know … to start a new life. Courage? Fortitude? Determination? 

Across six decades, from 1910 to 1970, about six million African Americans made the decision to uproot their lives. They fled the South to points in the north, midwest and western U.S. to escape violence, racism and Jim Crow laws, with hopes to better their lives and those of their children. It was a protracted mass exodus of epic proportion.

The Baltimore Museum of Art is focusing on this arc of history in its latest exhibit: "A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration." We speak with co-curator Jessica Bell Brown, and two featured artists, Akea Brionne and Robert Pruitt.

There are two free admission days coming up, December 15th and January 8th. At 6:30 pm on December 15th, Jessica Bell Brown will host a free conversation with several of the exhibit's artists to discuss Southern culture, belonging, and the process of developing commissioned works of art.

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472