Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1917. A painter, illustrator, and educator, he received his early art training at the Utopia Settlement House in Philadelphia. In 1932 he studied with Charles Alston at the Harlem Art Center and five years later received a working scholarship to the American Artists School, where he studied until 1939. He participated in the easel-painting section of the Federal Art Project from 1939 to 1940 and served in the Coast Guard. During World War II, Lawrence received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946. Among the places he has taught are Black Mountain College, Pratt Institute, Brandeis University, the New School for Social Research, and the University of Washington in Seattle.

Lawrence's work has always been dominated by his concern for social issues and historical events, particularly as they affect black Americans. "Pool Parlor," which earned him a prize in the "Artists for Victory" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in 1942, demonstrates this concern. It is one of the few works by Lawrence that is not part of a series, a form the artist often uses as a vehicle to explore the full range of his ideas. "Pool Parlor" is rendered in flat geometric shapes and a restricted palette, with the characteristic exaggeration of limbs, gestures, and postures reinforcing the narrative of the painting. This style gave way to more expressive linear play and three-dimensional modeling in the artist's later work.