After World War II, blacks felt a sense of urgency to search for racial equality. The armed forces were integrated and offered hope for equality in other aspects of black life. As they sought greater cultural and professional opportunities, and looked for communities where other African-American intellectuals and artists lived, many blacks migrated from the South to urban areas in the North. Artists such as Romare Bearden, Beauford Delaney, and Jacob Lawrence documented this trend in their works.