Toussaint L'Ouverture

This 1986 silkscreen portrait of Toussaint L'Ourverture (May 20, 1743 – April 7, 1803) by Jacob Lawrence is one of a set of six prints hanging in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

"These prints derive from a series of paintings Jacob Lawrence completed in 1938, inspired by the story of the hero who liberated his people from the yoke of French exploitation and control in the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804. In both the series of paintings and the prints presented here, Lawrence focused on the theme of self-liberation. However, in the case of the silk screens created decades later, the concept of agency, so dramatically demonstrated in the Toussaint story, may have held greater significance in the wake of the changes in the United States brought about by the Civil Rights Movement." -- National Museum of American History