Having grown up in Philadelphia and New York, painter Jacob Lawrence visited New Orleans in 1941 with his wife, fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Although Lawrence was an avid student of history who explored Black history in his paintings, his first trip to the Deep South opened his eyes to the absurdity of racial segregation. At this New Orleans restaurant, a flimsy wooden barrier separates the bar into two spaces — one for white people and one for Black people. From the bartender’s point of view, patrons are invisible to one another.